Secure Pork Supply Plan revisions planned for 2026The Secure Pork Supply (SPS) Plan, funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Pork Checkoff, facilitates timely recovery and business continuity in case of a foreign animal disease (FAD) outbreak in the United States. National Pork Board Director of Swine Health Dr Meredith Petersen says they have assembled an SPS advisory group to assist with updating the plan to reflect current industry programs and anticipated mandatory traceability standards.
“The group is going to review research findings, risk assessments, and field reports,” Petersen says. “They will bring all of that together and make updates to the Secure Pork Supply Plan to make it consistent with current scientific knowledge and industry practices.”
The SPS advisory group consists of pork producers, veterinarians, state animal health officials, USDA representatives, academicians, and industry representatives. “Secure Pork Supply is a great program to increase industry FAD preparedness,” Dr Petersen says. “But it needs to be reviewed, as there are some new things in the industry, such as the US Swine Health Improvement Plan, to incorporate. We want to make sure we’re really being collaborative across the industry and not duplicating any efforts.”
The SPS advisory group’s first meeting took place in November 2024, and its work will continue through 2025. This schedule means the advisory group anticipates rolling out updates to the SPS in 2026.
Dr Petersen welcomes input during the update process. “If you have experience with the Secure Pork Supply Plan, if you have feedback or updates, now is the time to make your voice heard. You can always reach out to me at the National Pork Board. I will bring your feedback to the advisory group, and they can discuss where it may fit in the update,” she states.
SPS Plan includes biosecurity element
The SPS Plan is designed for farms in the United States that might be affected by movement restrictions but not infected with an FAD. These farms might be near an infected farm and consequently have some restrictions on what can move on and off their premises despite not being infected.
Within the SPS exists an enhanced biosecurity plan with a map of the farm and defined practices. “Secure Pork Supply is a comprehensive business continuity plan, including elements such as traceability, movement records, and disease monitoring. It ensures that pigs are observed daily to detect any changes or clinical signs of foreign animal diseases and prepares a pork premises for response if one was detected,” Dr Petersen says.
To begin, producers and their herd veterinarians should visit securepork.org to find everything needed to create a site-specific SPS Plan. “The first step is to make sure you have your farm Premises Identification Number,” Dr Petersen says. “That’s a specific number associated with your farm where pigs are raised. After that, you can start on your enhanced biosecurity plan.” Plan templates for various production types can be found on the website.
The SPS Plan template includes designating a biosecurity manager for the farm. “This is the person responsible for ensuring the biosecurity plan is more than just a piece of paper, that it is being implemented during an FAD outbreak,” Dr Petersen says.
The enhanced biosecurity plan includes a perimeter buffer area (PBA). The PBA designates limited access points, so everything that enters needs to be cleaned and disinfected. This keeps anything in the outside world that could be potentially contaminated from entering the farm. This includes vehicles, supplies, and anything from outside the farm.
“The second thing the enhanced biosecurity plan should include is a defined line of separation,” Dr Petersen says. “This is the final threshold from outside of the pig spaces, or the barns, to the inside.” Establishing limited access points with biosecurity procedures for farm entry may look like a shower-in facility, with the shower serving as the line of separation. Other farms might have a bench entry to delineate the line of separation.
Finally, the enhanced biosecurity plan includes an aerial map of the farm, where the pork producer and their herd veterinarian can work together to draw the line of separation, a PBA with access points, as well as cleaning and disinfection stations.
Working together on the SPS’s site-specific enhanced biosecurity plan is a great way to strengthen the relationship between the pork producer and herd veterinarian, who can provide valuable input on biosecurity and what practices are needed.
SPS Plans require periodic review and farm-level updates
Once created, Dr Petersen recommends farmers review their SPS plans annually and update them as needed. Updates may include personnel turnover, including the biosecurity manager, and infrastructure changes on the farm.
While intended to facilitate response to an FAD outbreak, many of the biosecurity practices included in a farm’s SPS Plan should be done every day. “Many parts of the enhanced biosecurity plans are things we can do every day to mitigate the risk of endemic diseases entering the farm,” Dr Petersen says. “This is an important part of FAD preparedness, but also should be practiced day-to-day on the farm.”
Beyond biosecurity, an SPS Plan also includes movement records. Pig movements, supply movements on and off the farm, and farm visitors all should be recorded and kept. In the event of an FAD discovery on a US swine farm, the producer can share these movement records with their state animal health official. In the event of an FAD outbreak, state animal health officials will need to know where disease is, and where it is not. The more information they have, the quicker they can trace potential links between infected farms. This rapid response is critical in minimizing the production and economic impact of an FAD on the pork industry. Dr Petersen recommends recording movements on a platform like AgView.
Created by the Pork Checkoff, AgView is a way for pork producers to store movement records and have their data available digitally, eliminating paper copies. Farmers can securely house their movement data in AgView and share it with state animal health officials with the click of a button in an outbreak situation.
The SPS Plan update will look at ensuring movement records are consistent with the US Swine Health Improvement Plan (US SHIP) traceability standards as well as the potential mandatory traceability standards the National Pork Producers Council has presented to the USDA. Pig farms need to have their SPS Plan completed and shared with their official state agency to be certified in the US SHIP program. “Another reason we want to bring Secure Pork Supply to the forefront is because as producers are enrolling in US SHIP, it’s one of the things they’ll need to complete for certification,” Dr Petersen says.
Send feedback or input on SPS updates to mpetersen@pork.org for review by the advisory group.