Every December for nearly two decades, especially as a student amidst finals, I have binge watched the Lord of the Rings when the winter holidays near. This year was no exception, particularly because this article was due near Christmas. The movie-based-on-book trilogy spends 9 hours in Middle Earth assembling good to defeat evil and the one ring to control all.
Off screen, a great opponent gathers strength as it multiplies in many countries outside of the United States. Foreign animal disease preparedness and prevention are part of our everyday lives now. We talk, think, and worry about African swine fever (ASF) every single day.
Spoiler alert – good triumphs against evil in the Lord of the Rings story. But where it all started was with a fellowship of the ring, a fellowship of diverse beings – hobbits, dwarves, elves, and men – who came together with a shared common goal as darkness approached.
The swine industry has united in fellowship to focus their prevention efforts on African swine fever. The American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) continues to have strong allied forces with the National Pork Board (NPB), National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the Swine Health Information Center, and others to prevent ASF and other foreign animal diseases.
Justifiably, we have put a great deal of attention toward ASF prevention and preparedness. Those efforts have likely led to improved biosecurity and disease prevention of all diseases. While attention is on foreign animal disease prevention, we still battle porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, and goblins, and influenza, and trolls, and Salmonella, and orcs daily. At least some of those.
Regardless of the pathogen, having strong partnerships in place is important for disease control and prevention. Even in the face of ASF, we continue to build fellowships to strengthen our forces beyond the swine industry. The AASV continues to regularly meet with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agriculture Research Service, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and others to identify common goals.
For example, AASV, NPB, and NPPC recently attended a preharvest workshop in Washington DC. With representatives from beef and dairy, poultry and eggs, CDC, USDA, state public health, and state animal health, we met to discuss a shared goal – safe food.
About a year ago, Dr Harry Snelson wrote an advocacy article, “Pigs are not broccoli.”1 In that article, he described a 2015 Salmonella outbreak associated with pork consumption. During that outbreak, there was a strong desire from a public health department to perform an on-farm investigation and collect samples from the farm environment and pigs. The primary public health response in any outbreak investigation is to identify the source, stop the outbreak, and prevent future cases. There were several reasons why the proposed on-farm sampling would not have helped achieve those goals in that outbreak.
Following that outbreak and investigation, stakeholders recognized the need to come together via a collaborative One Health approach to understand how we as public health, animal health, and industry achieve the shared goal of producing and providing safe food. The objective of the recent preharvest workshop was to enhance communication and collaboration networks between industry, animal, and public health surrounding foodborne illness.
As expected, achieving common goals must start with early, open communication. The best way to ensure that occurs is by having working relationships – a fellowship – in place before an outbreak.
Early communication between these three entities provides an opportunity for all stakeholders to learn what we do not know, learn what others do know, and learn what else we might do to mitigate foodborne illness immediately.
As suggested during the workshop, one of the most important pieces of a preharvest foodborne illness investigation is an industry assessment. Industry and animal health representatives can and should be relied on as subject matter experts, helping public health epidemiologists understand how pig farming works, where and how a pig spends its life, and if their hypotheses might be possible. Industry assessment should be at the top of an inverted pyramid, and often sample collection at the bottom.
I often retell the story of a cluster of Campylobacter jejuni cases in sheep ranchers to demonstrate the value of veterinarians in public health. A public health and food animal veterinarian who was very familiar with livestock, sheep and wool, and “how things work” was involved in the investigation. Again, the investigation goals were to identify the source, stop the outbreak, and prevent future cases. Because of this public health veterinarian’s background, she knew the questions to ask. This cluster, associated with patients castrating lambs with their teeth, was solved because of an industry understanding.
Early communication also helps tell the true One Health story. If a new or emerging foodborne pathogen is causing human illness, veterinarians might have seen its presence, either with or without clinical significance, as part of routine animal health surveillance. We can help describe the organism, identify trends, and share what research has been conducted.
Information about organisms in animal health can be important to human health, and information about organisms in human health can be important to animal health. Bidirectional early communication can open discussion to prevent disease in both humans and animals. We may see problems in animals but may not understand or appreciate applications or consequences of that organism until we are aware of events or trends in human health.
Finally, early and open communication provides an opportunity to work together on collaborative messaging. Providing safe, wholesome pork is a top priority for swine veterinarians and pork producers. During an outbreak, a united message recognizing that everyone shares that goal and collaborates to prevent illness improves response coordination, collaboration, and consumer confidence.
The AASV will continue to meet regularly with swine and other food-animal representatives, animal and public health stakeholders, and others who may be important members of our fellowship. As we look to always improve animal health, human health, and food safety, we know that fellowship is valuable, even precious.
Abbey Canon, DVM, MPH, DACVPM
Director of Communications
Reference
*1. Snelson H. Pigs are not Broccoli [editorial]. J Swine Health Prod. 2019;27(1):46-47.
* Non-refereed reference.