African Swine Fever

African Swine Fever

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett
African Swine Fever is spreading across hog facilities in China and now Europe and has domestic producers' concern going up.

Greg Ibach, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, says efforts are underway to coordinate with the swine industry on African Swine Fever issues.

"I think the most important thing we're doing from a USDA point of view is our coordination with the swine industry. We have taken great steps and made big effort to reach out to the industry itself have conversations make sure we're communicating identifying concerns that they have and analyzing and working with them to determine to what extent we think those concerns are valid or what precaution we can put in place based on those concerns."

He says they have also increased surveillance at the border working with customs and border patrol. Just this month and specially trained dog sniffed out a roasted pig's head in the luggage of someone coming to the US from Ecuador.

Feed supplies, casings and imports of contaminated meat are also being closely inspected.

Still experts says the potential spread of the disease throughout Asia and/or Europe also poses a great risk to North American and South American producers.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said in a statement, "Because there's no treatment or vaccine available for this disease, we must work together to prevent this disease from entering the United States in order to best protect our farmers, our consumers and our natural resources,"

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