Quarantining feed ingredients from China in warm conditions
and treating the feed with chemicals commonly used in livestock feeds will
greatly reduce the risk of introducing African Swine Fever in North America,
says Dr. Scott Dee of Pipestone Applied Research.
He said Canada requires a quarantine for imported Chinese
feed ingredients, such as vitamins and organic soybeans, and he wants the U.S.
to follow suit.
Dee is the researcher who found that Porcine Epidemic
Diarrhea virus can survive and spread in animal feeds and now he has done the
same for African Swine Fever in trials at Kansas State University.
He said some Chinese practices make the spread of African
Swine Fever likely to continue. For example, it’s common to spread grain on the
ground and drive trucks over to crack the kernels. The virus can spread on
truck tires.
“I expect that there will be another
episode of the disease in 2020,” he said.
“This will be unlike the original epidemic
when the national herd was naïve to the virus, but with the virus still present
and circulating in pigs across the country, re-stocking with ASF-negative
animals taking place already and no proven vaccines available, there is a high
risk of another large outbreak.
“Add to this scenario the pork in cold
storage that is being released periodically – a lot of this is likely to be
contaminated if frozen before ASF was confirmed in the country – and this is
all dry kindling for the fire.
“In Europe the virus is moving further west: Germany and
Denmark are on high alert and are trying to prevent the movement of wild boar
but really, I think Europe need to put more focus on contaminated feed.
“In the U.S., Canada and Mexico, I believe the
implementation of mandatory quarantine protocol and controlling import of risky
products will keep the disease out – I think this is definitely achievable,”
Dee said.
