By EMMMA HOPKINS-O’BRIEN

Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — At the quarterly Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) meeting last week, concern was expressed over the recent diagnoses of African swine fever (ASF) in China, and the board discussed disaster planning and preparedness initiatives to mitigate damages in case of an outbreak in the United States.

“Although ASF has been active in Africa, Eastern Europe and parts of western Russia, the diagnosis of the disease in China has placed the U.S. pork industry on high alert,” said Dr. Bret Marsh, state veterinarian.

BOAH Swine Health Programs Director Kelli Werling presented essential facts on the non-zoonotic disease, which poses no food safety risks to humans but could spell disaster quickly for the pork industry.

“It’s considered one of most highly contractible and high-consequence diseases,” she said. “Reports of ASF in the U.S. would close some of our export markets, which is one of the reasons that we’re interested in the diagnoses of ASF in pigs in China.”

The disease spreads via close contact of infected pigs; it does not affect other species. It can also spread through an infected animal’s contact with excretions of other pigs, such as saliva, and by feeding uncooked, undercooked or otherwise contaminated meat back to pigs.

It is not a human threat, and cooking meat to at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes will deactivate the virus. Because there is no vaccine for ASF, stamping it out using mass depopulation and targeted disposal has been an important part of preventing spread of the disease in other countries.

Werling said ASF was considered eliminated from the globe, excluding parts of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Italian island of Sardinia, prior to 2007. However, it was shown to have an extremely high potential for trans-boundary contamination when it was diagnosed in the country of Georgia in 2007.

Since then, ASF has advanced through the Russian Federation and into Eastern Europe, and on August 1 was found in China. It was diagnosed in Bulgaria and Moldova soon after, and has been reported in some wild hog populations in Belgium, Ukraine and Hungary – bringing the total of European countries affected to 10.

“There have been 36 cases of ASF reported, mostly in those same areas of China,” Werling explained. “The first cases reported in China were reported hundreds or thousands of miles apart, and that’s an important part of this. In one case, hogs had traveled 1,400 miles from one province to another to be detected.

“So, the virus may not only be moving from one infected pig to another, but also on vehicles, travelers, work products, as well as live pigs.”

China is considered the top pork producer in the world, and prior to the disease outbreak there were an estimated 450 million hogs in that country. A little over 160,000 have been depopulated due to the outbreak, which makes these diagnoses of unique importance due to ASF’s nature and magnitude.

A factor which may make it difficult for Chinese authorities to control ASF is that half the hogs raised in that country are what the U.S. industry might consider “backyard herds” as opposed to mass commercial operations with large numbers of pigs in the same facilities.

Mitigation and preparedness

Werling said ASF is considered a threat to the U.S. pork population at this time. As well as meat, China is a source of swine feed and feed additives for U.S. swine.

She mentioned the research of Scott Dee, director at Pipestone Applied Research based in Pipestone, Minn. His work revolves around viral survivability in feed and feed material using a shipment model of feed sent overseas by ship, and has found that ASF was especially hardy and able to survive in feed and feed ingredients, as well as in empty shipping containers, throughout the duration of the study.

Recently published information provides recommended feed holding times some producers plan to use as a mitigation strategy prior to feeding any ingredients sourced from China. The recommendations are: 78 days for sealed or bagged feedstuff, and 286 days for feedstuff that is unable to be sealed or that has not been able to avoid other kinds of contamination.

“We have reached the six-week timeframe where China is starting to release some of their movement restrictions on certain sites if they have not found any additional cases within those areas,” Werling said. “So they’ve reached a point where they believe they have been able to detect what is going to be detectable, and lift some of the movement restrictions, so we’ll see what happens as that process unfolds.”

In the meantime, BOAH is continuing to plan for the worst-case scenario, said Marsh.

“BOAH has been meeting with individual pork producers, pork production companies, veterinarians, packing plants and others to validate production premises and advise our stakeholders about BOAH’s approach to a catastrophic disease event,” he explained.

Marsh said the board continues to receive significant support in its efforts from Indiana Pork, the Swine Health Information Center, National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council and the American Assoc. of Swine Veterinarians.

To learn more about ASF, visit the BOAH website at www.in.gov/boah/2857.htm