Executive Director’s message: “You know nothing, Jon Snow” (July 2019)

As I write this, the HBO series Game of Thrones (GOT) has just begun its eighth and final season. For those of you that have been living under Casterly Rock since 2011, GOT is based on a series of books recounting a medieval country’s seemingly never-ending civil war. The individual fiefdoms are constantly squabbling among themselves over who should rule the kingdom. While the alliances seem to shift around more frequently than air changes in a pig barn, sitting on the Iron Throne becomes a moot point when the White Walkers, an outside invader, threaten to take down the entire kingdom forcing the kids to unify against a common enemy. It falls to a brash young upstart of questionable heritage, Jon Snow, to try to band together the mischievous group of miscreants. At every step, he is met with skepticism and told, “You know nothing, Jon Snow!”

I feel like African swine fever (ASF) is the swine industry’s version of the White Walkers. It has existed for a long time and been beaten back over the years until it was contained in a couple of isolated parts of the swine kingdom. The world was aware of it and kept up its guard, but generally speaking, the industry faced bigger issues. Until, one day, the wall that had been protecting the world’s swine herds came crashing down allowing the invader to escape and hit at the very heart of the largest pork-producing countries in the world. African swine fever stared us in the face and said, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”

As in GOT, it is not that we really know nothing, it is just that we do not know enough, and we are often quite naïve. We feel threatened because the tools we are used to for diagnosing and fighting endemic diseases do not always work or are not available. In addition, the invader may have also acquired new weapons that we are ill-prepared to deal with – the White Walkers have a dragon with a seriously bad attitude and ASF may be able to cross the oceans in feed ingredients. Fortunately, we are aware that the threat is coming and we have time, although we do not know how much, to shore up our defenses.

Recently, the wardens of North America gathered in Ottawa to discuss how they might come together to harden our defenses and work with the rest of the world to begin to beat back this disease. There were over 150 attendees representing 15 countries. It was a great first step towards international collaboration. Swine industry representatives have been lobbying government leaders to implement surveillance strategies, develop and validate additional diagnostic tools, provide additional border security, conduct educational exercises, fund research to fill knowledge gaps, and secure the necessary resources to prevent and respond to an outbreak. The industry itself has spent producer dollars to fund research into better understanding ASF and to develop tools to enhance biosecurity, data transfer, and producer education. The goal is a smarter Jon Snow.

To their credit, government officials are listening and responding. Regulatory actions have been implemented addressing the importation of potentially contaminated goods. Additional detection tools are being secured and trained to enhance inspection at the borders. Diagnostic tests are being validated and additional sample types are being approved. State and federal animal health officials are exercising their response plans. Intergovernmental collaboration including industry stakeholders is a great starting point and a necessity.

The takeaway message, though, is that government can only do so much. There is a lot more left to do. We need a vaccine, feral swine controls, research to explore risk factors, mechanisms to address depopulation and carcass disposal, enhanced laboratory capacity, international agreements recognizing movement controls, adoption of business continuity strategies, and the list goes on. Protecting our industry falls to each one of us. What can you do? Educate yourself and your clients. Work to enhance on-farm biosecurity. Evaluate the sources of inputs coming onto your farms and select biosecure sources or implement holding times to reduce pathogen threat. Ensure that premises identification numbers are accurate and be willing to share the information animal health officials need to rapidly respond to a disease outbreak. Sign up for the Secure Pork Supply Plan. Attend regional ASF exercises when offered.

We’ve come a long way since this invader broke out of Sardinia and Sub-Saharan Africa in 2007. But the disease continues to wreak havoc throughout parts of Europe, Russia, and Asia and is showing no signs of stopping. As I was watching the latest episode of GOT, it struck me that it was somewhat analogous to the challenge we are facing with ASF. By no means do I mean to minimize in any way the significance of the challenge facing our industry and the people’s livelihoods that could be so dramatically affected as a result of an ASF outbreak. However, it is our hope that, by focusing the attention of all swine industry stakeholders on the ASF threat, we will be better able to prevent the introduction of the disease and respond to an outbreak. Hopefully our industry will be able to stand up when threatened and respond, “I may not know everything, but I know enough. And, by the way, I’m the rightful ruler of this kingdom!” Then we can get back to squabbling over the real international question of which is better: bacon, jamon, peameal, serrano, bratwurst, prosciutto, or pancetta?

Harry Snelson, DVM
Executive Director