The United States pork industry and USDA are holding the fourth in a series of exercises on dealing with foreign animal disease outbreaks. The September 23 exercise will include the top 14 pork producing states, including South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. National Pork Board’s Director of Swine Health Dr. Patrick Webb says they’re conducting a fictional outbreak of African Swine Fever and how to respond to it.
He says the first day of the exercise will involve six different areas of detection and response.
Webb says these exercises are critical because ASF has been spreading rapidly around the globe. He says most of that is due to poor biosecurity in those countries.
Webb says because there is no vaccine for African Swine Fever, biosecurity is the only effective way to deal with the disease.
