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Last week, USDA-trained detector dogs played a major role in the seizure of roughly 1 million pounds of pork smuggled from China where there is an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF). The million-pounds of pork is the largest agricultural seizure in the U.S.
The pork was smuggled in various different ways including in ramen noodle bowls to Tide detergent, deputy chief agricultural specialist Basil Liakakos said.
Since prevention is the best protection against the disease, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is sharing information about the importance of keeping ASF out of the United States. It is vital for everyone to know about ASF and how to prevent it, while keeping the U.S. pig population healthy.
To help people learn more about this disease, as well as the steps that can be taken to help protect U.S. pigs, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has updated its web content with additional information and links to partners’ resources. This information is available at www.aphis.usda.gov/animalhealth/swine/asf.
Additionally, USDA is releasing four infographics on the African Swine Fever Risk Pathways, Biosecurity, Signs and Symptoms of African Swine Fever and Traveler Tips.
USDA is monitoring the recent outbreaks of ASF is Asia and Europe, and has proactively taken steps to increase our safeguarding efforts to keep the disease out of the United States. These steps include:
- Working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at ports of entry, paying particular attention to cargo, passengers and products arriving from China and other ASF affected countries;
- Increasing detector dog teams with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to sniff out illegal products at key U.S. commercial sea and airports (last week four new beagles, Chipper, Marlee, Chaze and Cardie, completed training and were placed at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and Chicago's O'Hare airports);
- Collaborating with states, industry and producers to ensure everyone follows strict on-farm biosecurity protocols and best practices (including for garbage feeding in states where that is allowed);
- Restricting imports of pork and pork products from affected countries;
- Coordinating closely on response plans with the U.S. pork industry, producers and States to be ready should a detection ever occur in the United States;
- and Expanding the testing capabilities and testing capacity of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network.
Tuesday March 19, 2019/ USDA/ United States. https://www.usda.gov
Friday March 15, 2019/ NJ.com. https://www.nj.com/news
