Collaboration is critical to help protect the U.S. pork industry from foreign animal disease outbreaks. That is according to National Pork Board’s new chief veterinarian.
The board is working with state animal health agencies and USDA to be a part of the solution. He says that preparedness and identifying early signs is crucial to keep business flowing if an outbreak occurs.
“For all the planning and work that goes into planning to respond, you know, it’s really useless if it’s not implemented on the farm level,” Dusty Oedekoven explains. “So, for example, the biosecurity procedures that we know are critical to preventing the introduction of a pathogen like African swine fever into swine herds, that it’s got to be understood and implemented on every farm... So, we really need pig farmers to be alert to the signs and you know what does African swine fever looks like? And to report any suspicious signs.”
The pork board says that producers should not be afraid to repost early signs of disease.
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