July 6, 2023

Potential ASF outbreak in US can lead to 72-hour shutdown, pork council official says

How the COVID pandemic caused "packing plant backup and shutdown" will provide a "preview" of African swine fever's (ASF) impact should the disease hits the United States, according to Dr. Anna Forseth, director of animal health at the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).

"We anticipate the implementation of a 72-hour shutdown, a 72-hour standstill," she noted in an interview conducted during the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa.

All live swine and dead stock movements will be banned, giving state and federal officials time to assess the outbreak and how to contain it. Whichever country the disease appears in will be identified specifically, but in terms of offshore trade, "a detection in North America is going to have an impact to some degree."

Hog farms and packing plants can't hang on to pigs for too long before experiencing severe problems. Hog barns don't have extra room for market weight hogs since smaller feeder pigs are right behind them, fattening up and needing more space.

Weanling barns face the same situation. Piglets must be moved to feeder barns as piglets are born and require space. Sows need farrowing space as gestation concludes.

Furthermore, packing plants need pig barns to stay in operation and need to move freshly slaughtered meat into storage or further processing.

Regardless of anybody's needs, all parts of the hog and pork industry need to be prepared for a 2020-like shutdown as that is almost certainly the kind of situation that will occur the first day a foreign animal disease is identified in North America.

- The Western Producer