Pennsylvania Streamlines African Swine Fever Plan | Livestock and Livestock Latest News

Pennsylvania authorities continue to improve the tactics they use to respond to the outbreak of African swine fever.

The disease has raged in Asia and Europe over the past few years, unleashing certain devastations in China. The Americas have fled so far, but if a disease is detected, a quick, well-oiled reaction can limit the damage.

“We must always be vigilant to prevent it,” Alex Hamburg, an assistant veterinarian in Pennsylvania, said in a web conference with the Pennsylvania Industry Association on February 18.

Pennsylvania plays an important role in the US response to African swine fever. The state is ranked 12th in pork production and 4th in pork processing. Not only does the state raise many pigs, but other states also rely on Pennsylvania to bring pigs to market, Mr. Hamburg said.

Pennsylvania has participated in a recent landmark of the African Swine Fever program. This is a 2019 tabletop exercise that simulates the response to outbreaks by the USDA and the 14 largest pig-producing countries. As part of the training, Pennsylvania also Lancaster County Farm..

Based on that experience, the state’s Ag department decided that it needed to renew the way it assigns responsibility in the event of an emergency.

Previously, the first person to visit the site became the site manager, and everyone else came up with something. The group is currently assigned to experts in depopulation, decontamination and other tasks.

“If an event occurs and you need to deploy to an emergency, you don’t have to spend time figuring out who is doing what,” says Hamburg. “We already know what we are doing. We already know how we are doing it.”

Since the dry run two years ago, Pennsylvania has conducted follow-up exercises to help employees comfortably perform their roles and fine-tune their plans.

The state aims to develop requirements that allow consistent pig movement

The 2019 Exercise State and additional states are also cooperating with a common set of pig movements, allowing requirements that are universally recognized during the outbreak of African swine fever.

Standardized paperwork allows pigs to move again immediately after a 72-hour national outage called by the USDA if an illness is identified on the US coast.

“We sit there at the 73rd hour and don’t try to negotiate with other states,” Oh, what do you accept? ” “What do I accept?” Said Hamburg. “You need to hash everything and think well in advance.”

The plan involves establishing rules for sampling on the farm. There may not be enough government veterinarians to do all the necessary farm tests at the time of the outbreak. Sending a veterinarian to multiple farms is a biosecurity risk anyway. As a result, states may create accredited sampler programs.

Trained farm employees or other industry members can collect samples from pigs and leave them at the end of the lane for pick-up by state officials. The shared protocol ensures that sampling is of the same quality in all participating states, Hamburg said.

A thorough check of African swine fever farms means taking blood samples from 300 to 350 pigs. To process so many animals, the state will need help from veterinarians and farm employees who know how to control pigs, says state veterinarian Kevin Brightville. I did.

Lessons from African swine fever may apply to other threats

The risk of African swine fever invading the United States remains undiminished. USDA senior scientist Doug Gradu said the pathogen could remain in the meat and customs inspectors intercepted many smuggled pork products over the past few years.

However, Pennsylvania does not limit its preparation to African swine fever. The state aims to streamline its response to animal disease outbreaks.

The state has maintained a separate response plan for each disease, but is moving towards a single “high impact disease” response plan that includes an appendix for a particular disease.

“Many principles are the same, regardless of illness,” said Hamburg.

He said this strategy should facilitate the response to future illnesses.

After all, developing an animal disease response plan is not a one-time process. Plans need to be updated as threats change.

“When we get here, we need to be prepared for whatever we do,” said Hamburg.