July 12, 2020

US pork board launches new animal disease prevention tool

The US National Pork Board has released a new technology that helps hog producers stop large scale disease outbreaks before they even start, RFDTV reported.

Disease prevention starts at the farm. According to the National Pork Board producers can start with the AgView System to track cases on site. According to Dr Pam Zaabe, with the National Pork Board, "As a social security number for us, it can tie our medical information and our financial information, and so on, together, That's the equivalent of what that Premises Identification Number, or PIN, is for that site. So, it ties in where the animals are, and then it ties diagnostic test results, as well as any movement information of animals, both on and off the site."

Experts say that prepping for disease now can protect herds from future cases. "So, in the event that we have an African swine fever outbreak...any samples that are submitted, collected from that site, and sent to the diagnostic lab would have that Premises Identification Number on it, and then those test results would be tied back to that site," Dr Zaabe adds. According to the Pork Board, the technology makes it easy to share important data with health officials across the country.

The tool also keeps producer's information safe. According to Dr Zaabe, "Producers put their information into the dashboard or into the AgView system, and they control who they share it with. So, it's not shared unless they provide that permission to be shared."