The Certified Swine Sample Collector (CSSC) program was developed to build capacity to facilitate response to a foreign animal disease (FAD) in the United States. Specifically, the program is designed to increase the number of people capable of collecting and submitting diagnostic samples during an FAD outbreak. There are not nearly enough state and federal animal health officials or accredited practitioners to meet the sampling demand required to diagnose disease, determine the disease distribution, and verify negative disease status for the purposes of moving animals and products. This will likely require hundreds of thousands of samples for even a modest outbreak.

Responding to the recent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has challenged the resources available at the state and federal level. And that outbreak, while devastating, is comparatively small considering the likely distribution of an FAD incursion impacting the swine industry. As dedicated and capable as they are, it is pretty evident that government veterinarians would not be able to handle a large FAD outbreak, let alone two at the same time. They have recognized the need to expand the available resources including the number of boots on the ground.

To help meet this need, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program provided funding to develop a certification program aimed at training farm personnel capable of collecting samples at the request of the state animal health official and under the oversight of an accredited veterinarian. The American Association of Swine Veterinarians has participated in the development of this program in collaboration with the Center for Food Security and Public Health and Swine Medicine Education Center at Iowa State University, the National Pork Board, and the Multistate Partnership for Security in Agriculture.

The success of the program relies heavily on Category II Accredited Veterinarians. Have you taken the time to identify and train any of your producers? I realize everyone is busy and it does take time to contact the state animal health official, identify the appropriate producers, schedule the training, and conduct the training. There is also the added burden of annual recertification, but I can guarantee that it will be time well spent if our industry is impacted by an FAD.

We cannot rely on government veterinarians to do it all. We need to step up and do what we can to help enhance the response capabilities and shorten the time it will take to get back to “normal.” The USDA is suffering the same challenges of hiring and retaining veterinarians that we see across the food animal spectrum. Legislation that caps salaries for federal veterinarians further compounds the challenges of responding to an animal health disaster. I have been told that some federal veterinarians responding to the HPAI outbreak received a bill from the government to return as much as $15,000 they received in overtime pay because it exceeded the salary cap. In addition, many have faced multiple deployments away from family and their normal job. Some of that burden can be reduced if we work to ensure that the people on the farm can collect and submit the necessary samples.

Sherrie Webb wrote an excellent article published in the Journal of Swine Health and Production (JSHAP) in 2021 which provides additional information about the program.¹ The program is advertised every week in the AASV e-Letter and in each issue of JSHAP. You can find all of the program details, training materials, and forms on the CSSC webpage (securepork.org/cssc).

So, I would like to encourage each of you to think about which of your producers would be good candidates to become a CSSC so they can help respond when needed. Reach out to your state animal health official and see if they are supporting the training program in their state. Recognizing that there is a time requirement to get this done, we are exploring options to facilitate the actual training, but it is still incumbent on you to identify the producers and accept the responsibility of overseeing the collection and submission of samples during an emergency. Please consider taking the first step.

Harry Snelson, DVM
Executive Director

Reference

*1. Webb S. Certified Swine Sample Collector training program [Editorial]. J Swine Health Prod. 2021;29:285-287. https://www.aasv.org/shap/issues/v29n5/v29n5advocacy.html

*Non-refereed reference.