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Legislators and pork producers want heightened security

Legislators and pork producers want US Customs and Border Protection to ramp up their efforts to prevent an African Swine Fever outbreak in the US.

During a House Ag Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture hearing on Tuesday National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) president David Herring testified that they’d like to see appropriations for 600 additional US Customs and Border Protection Agricultural Inspectors at US borders.  “Those agricultural specialists would help prevent (the disease from entering the US – and we think prevention is the number one key,” he says.  “Any given day we have a million pigs on the road.  If we get an introduction in the right place it will be very difficult for us to contain African Swine Fever.”

Recently Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne and Indiana Congressman Jim Baird sent a letter to acting commissioner Mark Morgan emphasizing the importance of keeping the disease out of the US.  The Representatives say the disease poses a serious threat to the US pork industry and they want to ensure CBP is vigilant in taking steps to prevent any introduction of the disease to the US. 

The disease has spread rapidly in China, the rest of Asia, and in Europe and there is no vaccine to contain or eradicate the disease.  Should the disease hit the US, Baird says it would devastate the communities and workers who depend on the pork industry.  NPPC says pork producers would lose portions of their herd from disease and culling and would also lose access to several export markets which accounts for 25 percent of sales for US pork producers. 

African Swine Fever does not impact people and poses no food safety risks, but it is highly contagious and is a deadly virus that affects hogs.  Outbreaks have been identified in China, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Cambodia, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam, and South Africa.

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