U.S. Pork Producers Encouraged to Participate in Programs to Prevent and Respond to Foreign Animal Disease

The Chief Veterinarian with the National Pork Board is encouraging U.S. pork producers to take advantage of two Pork Checkoff funded programs designed to help prevent and to respond to the introduction of foreign animal disease.

U.S. efforts to prevent and to prepare for a foreign animal disease outbreak were among the topics discussed early this month as part of World Pork Expo in Des Moines.

Dr. Dustin Oedekoven, the Chief Veterinarian with the National Pork Board, notes the Pork Board works producers, veterinarians, state and federal regulators and academia with the goal of better preparing the U.S. pork industry to prevent disease and to prepare a response to disease.

Clip-Dr. Dustin Oedekoven-National Pork Board:

A couple of the projects the Pork Board has funded, one is a pig movement database called AgView and this is a checkoff funded database that would supply pork movement and pig movement information to animal health officials so that they have the information needed to help resume trade just as quickly as possible.

I mentioned the fact that the pork industry exports nearly 30 percent of its product and we know that that export ability would end on day one of an outbreak even with just one pig being identified anywhere in the United States.

In addition, the interstate and intrastate movement of pigs would stop for at least 72 hours until animal health officials can identify the extent of the outbreak.The data that's into AgView, we have over six thousand premises that are loaded in there now and we're seeing an increased number of movements recorded every day with the goal of helping animal health officials have the information they need.Another area that the Pork Board has funded and is working with is the development of those biosecurity plans which is really critical.

The Secure Pork Supply Plan helps producers and veterinarians to identify the tools necessary to develop those biosecurity plans.Securepork.org is the place to find information for those biosecurity plans and agview.com is where producers can create an AgView account.