Meat+Poultry - December 2021 - 29

C
OVID-19 isn't the only disease causing
problems for the global meat and
poultry industry. Major reportable
animal diseases made industry news headlines
throughout 2021. African swine fever (ASF)
and avian influenza continued to spread,
and bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE), both atypical and classical, made an
appearance in Europe and South America.
In July, animal disease surveillance
confirmed the presence of ASF in the
Dominican Republic and in September, ASF
appeared in Haiti for the first time in 40 years.
The finding set in motion a series of actions
aimed at protecting the US swineherd.
In August, the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) of the US
Department of Agriculture announced its
intent to establish a World Organization for
Animal Health (OIE)-recognized foreign
animal disease protection zone around
Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. By
September, APHIS issued a federal order
suspending the interstate movement of all
live swine, swine germplasm, swine products,
and swine byproducts from Puerto Rico
and the US Virgin Islands to the mainland
United States.
So far, ASF has not been detected in Puerto
Rico or the US Virgin Islands. However, given
the geographic proximity of the Dominican
Republic to Puerto Rico and the United States
makes an outbreak on US soil a real possibility.
KatieRose McCullough, director of
regulatory and scientific affairs for the North
American Meat Institute (NAMI), led a webinar
titled " How to Prepare your Establishment
for a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak "
during which she shared steps producers
and processors should take to prepare for
an outbreak.
" It is the time to be extra vigilant and make
sure establishments have their foreign animal
disease protocols in place before something
happens, " McCullough said.
An outbreak of ASF would immediately
halt exports of US pork, and limit movement
of live animals and pork products. Industry
stakeholders also are taking steps to prepare
for such a scenario. Even before surveillance
revealed ASF in the Dominican Republic,
officials with the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency (CFIA) and APHIS developed and
signed a protocol to guide bilateral trade if
ASF is detected in feral pigs, without cases in
domestic swine.
Under the protocol, all trade between
both countries initially would stop following
confirmation of ASF in feral swine. Then trade
would resume in three progressive phases
with increasingly reduced restrictions on
live swine, swine germplasm and untreated
swine commodities. Agencies would set up
initial control areas, initiate surveillance/
case findings and removal of feral swine and
start surveillance in captive swine. Trade
restrictions are reduced to the boundaries of
the established control area during the third
and final phase.
ONGOING BATTLE
Pork producers in Europe remained on high
alert for signs of the disease, especially after
Germany reported its first confirmed case of
ASF to the World Organization for Animal
Health in July. The source of the infection was
unknown, but officials confirmed the virus
in a decomposed carcass of an infected dead
female wild boar found in the German state of
Brandenburg.
Germany is a leading supplier of pork to
China which has increased imports of pork
to fill supply gaps caused by ASF outbreaks
there. South Korea, Germany's second-largest
pork export destination, imposed a ban on
pork from Germany in response to news of
the finding.
Government agencies in Europe and
the United Kingdom tracked the disease as
it spread westward from Eastern Europe.
Outbreaks of the disease were reported in
domestic pigs and wild boar populations in
the Czech Republic, Kaliningrad, Romania,
Hungary and Poland which shares a border
with Germany. The Foreign Agricultural
Service (FAS) of the USDA reported in
November that animal health officials in
Poland had confirmed outbreaks in three
new provinces. Earlier confirmed cases
were mostly on farms in areas already listed
as implementing special control measures
for ASF.
The first outbreak of the disease occurred
in Shenyang, China, in August of 2018.
Outbreaks keep popping up despite control
measures including movement control inside
www.meatpoultry.com | 12.21 | MEAT+POULTRY 29
" It is the time
to be extra
vigilant and
make sure
establishments
have their
foreign animal
disease
protocols in
place before
something
happens. "
- KATIEROSE MCCULLOUGH
bluraz - stock.adobe.com, Jackie Nix
http://www.meatpoultry.com
Meat+Poultry - December 2021

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