Executive Director’s message: ASF arrived and, yada yada, we responded (Sep ’19)

I’m writing this column on the 30th anniversary of the Seinfeld television show. While many of you are probably too young to remember the show (a fair number of you were not even born, I am shocked to say), I am pretty sure you have all probably used at least one catch phrase from the show. In one episode, the characters fall into the habit of relaying intricate stories about their lives by saying “yada yada” over the most important aspects of the story. In one scene, Elaine is describing to Jerry a recent date she had been on saying, “We went out to dinner, I had the lobster bisque, we went back to my place, yada yada yada, I never heard from him again.” To which Jerry notes that she “yada yada’d over the best part.” Elaine responded, “No, I mentioned the bisque.”

I bring this up to highlight one of the things I have noticed over the last year as the swine industry has worked with state and federal animal health officials to coordinate emerging and foreign animal disease response plans. A lot of effort has been focused on the overarching plan to address the introduction of a foreign animal disease into the US swine herd and I think the conceptual plan is a well-designed and reasoned approach. Unfortunately, the real devil is, in fact, in the details and it seems that we all-to-often tend to yada yada or gloss over these details. For example, the very thorny issue of exactly how to carry out mass depopulation and disposal on a large scale or, in some cases, even a small scale.

We all seem to agree that, at least in the case of African swine fever (ASF) where disease control options are limited, depopulation is the most reasonable scenario to facilitate disease control. The problem is, we don’t know how to get it done or what to do with the carcasses. This results in hours of debate over how to balance the human well-being, animal welfare, resource availability, practicality, timeliness, and environmental concerns associated with the unpleasant task necessary to control disease spread. There are numerous options to achieve depopulation and disposal but none that check all the boxes in every case. What this means is that the methodology is going to vary depending on circumstances on individual farms and states. For this reason, it is imperative that veterinarians work with their clients to facilitate planning for depopulation and disposal that meets the needs of the animals, the farmers, and the regulators. Producers should have a plan for how they will conduct depopulation and disposal of the animals on their farm.

Depopulation and disposal are perhaps the most obvious, but there are other, more subtle, examples of “yada yada planning.” How long will a stop movement last? How many samples will we have to test to prove a farm is negative? What information is necessary in order to permit the movement of animals or products? Can we regionalize or compartmentalize to facilitate interstate movement and international trade? If vaccine is available, who gets vaccinated? How do we manage livestock shows and exhibitions? What do we do about feral swine? What about indemnity – how much will I get paid and based on what? And, the list goes on. The answer to many of these questions is outbreak dependent and the details will, hopefully, fall into place as we understand more about the outbreak. Unfortunately, all decisions are likely subject to political whims.

The United States Department of Agriculture, at the request of the AASV and the swine industry, has held a series of ASF exercises over the last year in preparation for a fully functional national exercise to be held in late September. At the time of this writing, 14 states (including all the key swine states) have agreed to participate in the exercise which will cover many of these key topic areas over 4 days. It is my hope that this exercise will force at least a focused discussion, if not decisions, on these issues and realization that challenges remain to be answered.

Hopefully, this exercise will raise awareness among animal health officials, farmers, and veterinarians about the challenges facing the industry at all levels and stimulate the search for solutions to the identified gaps where possible. I encourage all our members to contact your state animal health official and find out where they will be gathering to conduct the exercise and plan to participate. To continue the Seinfeld analogy, let’s strive to fill in the yada yada so we can all become the masters of our domain.

Harry Snelson, DVM
Executive Director