Are you ready for a foreign animal disease (FAD) outbreak? During the Pig Welfare Symposium in Minneapolis, Minn., a group of pork industry leaders ranging from pig farmers to animal welfare experts gathered to experience a tabletop exercise led by Patrick Webb, DVM and director of swine health programs for the National Pork Board.
“African swine fever has grabbed the pork industry’s attention,” Webb says. “The result is a flurry of prevention and preparedness activities at the local, state and national levels that has not been seen since the aftermath of the United Kingdom’s Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in 2001.”
A lot has changed in the past 18 years, Webb says. Not only has the industry grown with more pigs and bigger farms, but interstate movements are now complicating the age-old question of what do we do when we can’t move pigs?
