News from the National Pork Board
Foreign animal diseases (FADs), especially African swine fever, are always an important topic to animal health officials, pig farmers, and those who represent the swine industry. Keeping FADs out of the United States and ensuring business continuity for pig farmers are key priorities to the National Pork Board (NPB) and the swine industry. It is imperative the industry works together to control the spread of diseases, as exposure to an FAD would close export markets for US pork and have a negative effect on the farm economy.
The NBP, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), and the US Swine Health Improvement Plan (US SHIP) initiative, have been collaborating to identify industry-driven opportunities to improve preharvest traceability in the swine industry. The key areas of focus include movements to slaughter, including cull channels; intrastate movements; speed at which movement data is available; and premises identification numbers across all segments of the industry. To aid in this effort, the industry assembled the Swine Traceability Task Force. They are tasked with reviewing and revising a set of Swine Traceability Standards. Producers had the opportunity to provide feedback on the standards to NPPC in October. The final draft of the Swine Traceability Standards will be presented during the 2024 National Pork Industry Forum in March, an event held jointly by NPB and NPPC.
The goal of the Swine Traceability Standards is to arm animal health officials with additional information they will need to trace live swine. It is a priority of the industry to ensure state animal health officials have the traceability information they need on day one of an FAD incident to support disease control, regionalization, and resumption of commerce and trade. In 2022, the United States exported over $7.6 billion in pork and pork products to over 100 countries – nearly a quarter of US pork production (Source: 2022 Year-end data from USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and USMEF). A closure in the export market would be detrimental to the US swine industry.
The NPB has dedicated resources to help producers share traceability information with animal health officials, including a free, opt-in technology solution called AgView. This promotes business continuity for US pig farmers by uniquely making disease traceback and pig movement data available to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and state animal health officials on day one of an FAD outbreak. The future of AgView includes serving as the approved swine movement repository for US SHIP and as the database of record for a potential mandatory preharvest traceability system.
To ensure collaboration and success, the industry is working closely with USDA on a complementary project to improve preharvest traceability in cull markets using the most up-to-date technology. Veterinarians serve an important role in this process and will be essential in working with producers to ensure herd health and help them understand the importance of traceability in the swine industry. For more information about these efforts to improve preharvest traceability in the swine industry, please visit usswinehealthimprovementplan.com