U.S. Pork Producers Encouraged to be Proactive in Preparing for Foreign Animal Disease

Jun 08, 2018

The National Pork Board is encouraging pork producers to be proactive against foreign animal disease by enrolling in the Secure Pork Supply program.

The Secure Pork Supply program is a program where, in the face of a foreign animal disease outbreak where quarantines have been put in place by regulatory officials blocking the movement of animals, that movements can be restarted.

Dr. Dave Pyburn, the Vice President of Science and Technology with the National Pork Board, told those on hand yesterday for World Pork Expo as we've moved into a more global economy the risk of a foreign animal disease outbreak has increased and it's just a matter of time before the U.S. swine herd is exposed to a foreign animal disease.

Dr. Dave Pyburn-National Pork Board:

The secure pork supply delivers data to those state veterinarians that are making those decisions on permitting movements, safe low risk movements in the face of a foreign animal disease outbreak.

It's data from the farm looking at surveillance, looking at diagnostic testing, looking at observational data from your labor, looking at biosecurity records and biosecurity standard operating procedure on the farms, looking at animal movement records.

How much movement has happened in and out of the farm and where has that movement gone or come from.

Source : Farmscape

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.