Pork producers encouraged to enroll in U.S. SHIP

by | May 25, 2023 | 5 Ag Stories, News

The U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan (U.S. SHIP) is a national certification program modeled after the National Poultry Improvement Plan. Dr. Tyler Holck, senior project coordinator, explained how the program would work should there be a foreign animal disease outbreak.

?U.S. SHIP would step in and have some specific requirements or standards for biosecurity, traceability and surveillance, so that we would have competence of where the disease is not in other words, determining and demonstrating the freedom of disease, outside of those control areas,? Dr. Holck said.

Dr. Holck said the most important thing we can do now is get critical mass in participation. There are 31 states participating, equating approximately 55 percent of the nation?s sow herd and 44 percent of the grow/finish pigs.

?So, a producer that’s interested in participating would reach out to their state and do a very simple straightforward enrollment and fill out a biosecurity survey, and then they would be enrolled in U.S. SHIP, and then it would be up to them in the state to then confer certification in the program,? Dr. Holck said.

Dr. Holck added that U.S. SHIP is for all pork producers, no matter the size of the operation.

?It doesn’t matter whether you’re a pork powerhouse or an individual 4-H show pig exhibition producer, we are welcoming and encouraging all to enroll as you think about being more discerning of what’s appropriate for those different types of producers,? Dr. Holck said. ?That’s how we’re monitoring or making our requirements, our standards, towards those different classifications of producers.?

For more information, visit https://usswinehealthimprovementplan.com/. Producers attending the World Pork Expo next month are also welcome to stop by the National Pork Board booth to learn more.