Author Archives: Paul Sundberg

The Swine Health Information Center along with the National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council, and American Association of Swine Veterinarians are sharing with US producers and industry members the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA’s) new import requirements. The requirements are for unprocessed grains and oilseeds, as well as associated meals, intended for use in livestock feed when sourced from countries reporting an active case of African swine fever (ASF) in domestic or wild pigs within the last five years. CFIA conducted a comparative analysis of livestock feed imports which resulted in these specific ingredients being identified to be the highest risk. The date of implementation for these new requirements was Friday, March 29, 2019. Read the announcement in full here. Additional details were released on April 2, 2019, and can be read here.

The Swine Health Information Center along with the National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council, and American Association of Swine Veterinarians are sharing a recent United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services (VS) literature review. The project looked at scientific evidence regarding whether non-animal origin ingredients of commercial swine feed could introduce or transmit viral pathogens of swine into or within the US. In the review, USDA experts identify, evaluate, and summarize current scientific knowledge published through March 2018. They also identify information gaps affecting decision makers, other stakeholders, and the scientific community. Support for future scientific research and/or risk quantifying models to evaluate the risk of entry of viral pathogens via specific feed ingredients from source countries and subsequent exposure to US swine populations are expected outcomes of this effort. Read the entire literature review here.

The Swine Health Information Center along with the National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council, and American Association of Swine Veterinarians are sharing the recently published USDA Non-Animal Origin Feed Ingredient (NOFI) Risk Evaluation Framework: Scoping document. This work was done to assess the range of potentially contaminated ingredients and source countries, the variety of feed processing and associated kill steps, and multiple pathways of introduction and exposure of swine. USDA says a single comprehensive import risk analysis is not feasible. In this work, USDA’s initial focus was to identify and rank risk factors considered predictive for whether any given NOFI shipment poses substantive risk of introducing ASF to the United States. Read the entire report here.

The Swine Health Information Center along with the National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council, and American Association of Swine Veterinarians are sharing with US producers and industry representatives USDA’s recently published Qualitative Assessment of the likelihood of African swine fever virus entry to the United States: Entry Assessment. In this qualitative assessment, it was noted Illegal entry of swine products and by-products presents the relatively largest potential pathway for the entry of African swine fever virus versus other pathways. The assessment was conducted by USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Service Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health, Risk Assessment Team in Fort Collins, Colorado. Read the entire assessment here.

In 2018, African swine fever (ASF) spread into Western Europe, and, for the first time, into China and Southeast Asia. Such dramatic change in the global epidemiological conditions of ASF has resulted in concerns the disease may continue to spread into disease-free regions, such as the US. An analysis funded by the Swine Health Information Center and National Pork Board estimated the risk for introduction of ASF virus into the US through smuggling of pork in air passengers’ luggage. The analysis was conducted by the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota (OIE collaborating center on capacity building) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain (OIE reference laboratory for ASF). Results suggest the mean risk of ASF virus introduction into the US in this way has increased 183 percent, compared to the risk estimated before the disease spread into China, East Asia, and Western Europe in 2018 and 2019.

Although it has not been officially reported to the OIE, the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Animal Health Department released a communication confirming that ASF has been detected in two provinces in northern Vietnam, Hung Yen and Thai Binh, southeast of the capital city of Hanoi and at approximately 100 miles (160 km) from the Chinese border (Maps 1,2). Eight outbreaks have been reported, and all pigs in the affected farms have been culled. Neighboring farms are being tested as well. Local authorities initiated general measures to contain the outbreaks and disinfect the area through quarantine and restrictions of animal movements, but, so far, the total number of cases is still uncertain.