Being prepared for disease before it strikes

by | Nov 7, 2016 | 5 Ag Stories, News

by staff

A Secure Pork Supply Plan is being developed to coordinate a timely response to a foreign animal disease. Dr. Patrick Webb, who is the Pork Checkoff director of swine health programs, He says the pork supply plan effort is all about being prepared.

?In the world of emergency response, there are two areas you deal with. The folks in the control area that have the disease and you need to work with those guys to help contain that disease and get rid of it. But the other population are those folks caught in a response that don?t any evidence of infection in their herds and they need to move. The secure pork supply plan is a business continuity plan for those folks that are able to demonstrate the absence of infection in their herds so they can move for production purposes and move their animals to harvest.?

This plan is developing procedures to allow safe movement of livestock.

?It is very important by far. You?ll have more farms affected in an area that don?t have the disease than do so we need to work on plans for those folks to be able to do those types of movements so they can stay in business and not have to go out of business because they can?t move their pigs.?

Webb says it is important to have a plan that includes enhanced communication and coordination at the time of a foreign animal disease outbreak.