Category Archives: Foreign Animal Disease

An Alberta organization is asking anyone across the province to share wild boar sightings. The Alberta Invasive Species Council recently launched its “Squeal on Pigs ” campaign to raise awareness about these animals and the damage they can do to crops, livestock and property. [Source: Farms.com 20 May 2021, by Diego Flammini]

It wasn’t the kind of cake U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists were expecting to find. On April 4, CBP specialists discovered cow dung cakes while examining leftover baggage at Washington Dulles International Airport. [Source: Farm Journal’s Pork 10 May 2021 by Jennifer Shike]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) today announced that an African Swine Fever Virus vaccine candidate has been adapted to grow in a cell line, which means that those involved in vaccine production will no longer have to rely on live pigs and their fresh cells for vaccine production. [Source: USDA ARS 6 May 2021]

African swine fever (ASF) is still a huge problem in China and will never be eliminated, says Michael Ellermann, a professional swine consultant with Danish company Aspire Agritech Consulting. Ellermann is based in China, where he works with clients on training, farm management, and new farm development. He spoke at the Carthage Spring Swine Symposium today. Read the full story at Successful Farming. [Source: Successful Farming 27 April 2021, by Betsy Freese]

EFSA’s latest advice on African swine fever (ASF) looks at the risk of the virus being introduced to non-affected regions of the EU via pathways such as feed, bedding materials and empty pig transport vehicles returning from affected areas. Read the full article here.

Media reports of African swine fever virus (ASFV) variants emerging in China and a recent China Harbin Laboratory paper describing its analysis of ASFV variants prompted the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) to dig into the topic with ASF expert Dan Rock of the University of Illinois. [Source: Farm Journal’s Pork, 23 April 2021, by Jennifer Shike]

China’s agriculture ministry issued a plan on Wednesday to divide the country into five regions to be charged with greater responsibility to prevent and control African swine fever, as well as other animal diseases. [Source: Reuters 21 April 2021]

The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), with support from the National Pork Producers Council, obtained a USDA Foreign Ag Service grant to fund workshops on African swine fever (ASF) in Vietnam. Now underway, the workshops are conducted for SHIC by the University of Minnesota’s (UMN’s) Center for Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS) via ProgRESSVet. CAHFS is a World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) collaborating center for capacity building on OIE Advanced Competencies. ProgRESSVet has been active in countries around the world where each offering is adapted to the needs of the targeted country. ProgRESSVet Vietnam is a partnership between the USDA, SHIC, and the Vietnamese Department of Animal Health (DAH), facilitated by UMN CAHFS. The goal of the workshops in Vietnam is helping the DAH workforce acquire knowledge and develop skills on OIE Advanced Competencies with a focus on the prevention and control of ASF.

A research project on African swine fever (ASF) in Vietnam, made possible by a USDA Foreign Ag Service grant obtained by the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) with support from the National Pork Producers Council, examined the potential for rodents to serve as vectors of the devastating virus. Rodent vectors are a possible transmission route long-established for other swine diseases, but uncharacterized for ASF. Work conducted by researchers from South Dakota State University and the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) on Vietnamese farms with differing biosecurity levels provided information that suggests rodents are not a high risk of being ASF vectors.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have developed a protocol to help ensure bilateral trade will continue if African swine fever (ASF) is detected in feral swine in either country, while still absent from domestic swine. [Source: USDA 16 March 2021]