By JORDAN STRICKLER

Kentucky Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — African swine fever (ASF) has spread like wildfire through Chinese hog herds, and the USDA is trying to make sure the same fate does not befall U.S. farmers.

The ordeal has caused China, the world’s largest hog producer, to cull more than 1 million animals. In response, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is going to be working with the swine industry, states, and veterinary diagnostic laboratories on ramping up inspection and testing of ASF.

“African swine fever is an area of high interest among the veterinary community and our swine industry, and we continue to take action to prepare for this deadly disease,” said Greg Ibach, USDA under secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs.

“While we are confident that our overlapping safeguards will continue to keep ASF out of the United States, an enhanced surveillance program will serve as an early warning system, helping us find any potential disease much more quickly. It will also minimize virus spread and support efforts to restore trade markets and animal movements as quickly as possible, should the disease be detected.”

APHIS plans on adding ASF testing to its existing classical swine fever surveillance while it works with state and federal partners to identify and investigate incidents involving sick or dead feral swine, to determine if they should be tested for ASF or other foreign animal diseases.

USDA officials also plan on working with their counterparts in Canada and Mexico on a North American coordinated approach to ASF defense, response, and trade maintenance, as well as increasing detector dog teams with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to sniff out illegal products at key commercial sea and airports.

In mid-March, APHIS officials announced that USDA-trained dogs had helped port authorities in New Jersey seize about 1 million pounds of pork smuggled from China.

“U.S. pork producers are already suffering as a result of numerous trade disputes with top-importing countries, and an outbreak of ASF in the United States would be devastating,” said David Herring, a pork producer from Lillington, N.C., and president of the National Pork Producers Council.

“That’s why it’s so important we have a strong surveillance program, to ensure early notification of any spread of the virus. With no vaccination available, prevention is our only defense.”

Pigs infected with ASF virus can die without warning, or they can have high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, skin lesions, red blotches, and breathing difficulties. ASF spreads through bodily fluids, ticks, and uncooked meat scraps, and results of at least one study suggest it remains viable in feed ingredients shipped overseas. When a virus infects a herd, the results can be devastating.

“The strain we are dealing with now is very deadly, with the death rate between 70 and 100 percent,” said Robert Stout, the state veterinarian for Kentucky. “When the disease does show up, the entire herd must be depopulated.

“China has the largest pork population in the world, and I don’t know if all reporting has been comprehensive, but I suspect that reports of a million could be true. At last count I’ve heard, 21 (provinces) have been infected.”

On March 11, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) predicted ASF would diminish China's swine inventory 13 percent by the end of 2019 and reduce its pork production 5 percent. A Reuters report claims that farm and industry insiders said China's epidemic has been more extensive than what official reports suggest, citing farms with concealed outbreaks and local governments that declined to test sick pigs.

As a result of the outbreak, the United Nations reports that world meat production is expected to fall for the first time in two decades, with producer output expected to be 0.2 percent less than last year. According to the UN, meat production has increased 45 percent since the start of the millennium.

The USDA’s April forecast predicts a drop of 134 million head in China – equivalent to the entire annual output of American pigs – and the worst slump since the USDA began counting that country’s pigs in the mid-1970s. According to USDA weekly data, China has purchased 163,825 metric tons of U.S. pork so far this year, up more than 700 percent from the same period in 2018.

Stout is confident ASF will remain outside of U.S. borders. “USDA is doing a lot of surveillance. They are working with Customs and Border Control at ports to see that nothing that could contain the virus will be allowed to enter,” he explained.

“The commercial industry in the U.S. is heavily regulated and there is very strict biosecurity, so I think it would be difficult, but not impossible, to get it introduced into commercial farming.”

He said biosecurity is the key to keeping it off the farm: “Know what you’re bringing onto the farm, know who is coming onto the farm, don’t bring anything onto the farm with a status you don’t know, and if you do, isolate it for three to four weeks.”

U.S. companies exported almost 6 billion pounds of pork in 2018, or 23 percent of national production, according to the FAS. The U.S. imported just over 1 billion pounds.