A deadly virus affecting swine populations across the globe continues its spread.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in South Korea today confirmed a new case of African Swine Fever (ASF), nearly a week after validating its first case of the highly contagious disease.
United States officials promptly responded to the news, calling for heightened animal disease preparedness efforts.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services will host a series of exercises this week to further states’ capacity to effectively respond to and mitigate an African Swine Fever outbreak. U.S. Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Jack Shere says these drills are in response to what is happening overseas.
“We’ve been watching what is happening in Asia and Europe. As a result, we want to make sure our folks are prepared,” Dr. Shere said.
Such exercises will take place in the top swine producing states, which includes Iowa. Each training will take participants through a series of actions including: On-farm diagnosis, disease response, waste disposal and returning to normalcy.
“It’s a four-day, functional set of drills that we’re going to run the states through. (It will include) everything from laboratory scenarios to on-farm scenarios of how they would react,” Dr. Shere said.
Training sessions will provide all parties a chance to assess and evaluate response plans. Dr. Shere says, “The faster the response, the better chance of containing the disease,”
“(We will be) moving people around, utilizing resources. (Then) looking at response times and how that would affect them, and whether they have the capabilities to do the same with what they’re confronted with,” Dr. Shere said.
This article originally appeared on the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
