A team of investigators and staff from across four land-grant universities are spearheading a USDA sponsored pilot project entitled "The Development and Demonstration of a US Swine Health Improvement Plan (US SHIP) modeled after the National Poultry Improvement Plan". Veterinarians are being encouraged to review, share, and point US pork industry stakeholders in your practice area, place of business, or region to the Letter of Introduction and the narrated US SHIP Project Presentation on the US Swine Health Improvement Plan website.
The primary objectives of this endeavor are to develop and implement a US Swine Health Improvement Plan African Swine Fever (ASF)-Classical Swine Fever (CSF) Monitored certification of US pork production operations modelled after the basic tenets of the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) H5/H7 Avian Influenza Monitored certification of US Commercial Poultry operations. Upon the conclusion of this two-year pilot project (should there be interest), the experiences gained and operations established through the pilot could be transitioned into a more formal and ongoing platform (i.e., US Swine Health Improvement Plan or US SHIP) for safeguarding, certifying, and bettering the health of US swine and longer-term competitiveness of the US pork industry.
US Pork Producers, Packers (Slaughter Facilities), and State Animal Health Officials with a significant interest in this precedent-setting endeavor are being asked to complete a 5-question interest survey on the US SHIP website by no later than 1/31/2021. Survey responses received serve to provide project investigators the foundational information needed to determine the states where there is a critical mass of interest. All states with a critical mass of interest and US pork supply chains are welcome to participate. This pilot project is intentionally planned to be broadly scalable across any number of states and pork supply chains.
Please reach out to the US SHIP project investigators or program staff should you have any questions, concerns, or feedback at https://usswinehealthimprovementplan.com.