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Are You Ready for Foreign Animal Disease?

Are You Ready for Foreign Animal Disease?

Patrick Webb, DVM, Assistant Chief Veterinarian, National Pork Board provides advice to keep swine herds safe from foreign diseases.

By Patrick Webb, DVM, Assistant Chief Veterinarian, National Pork Board

If you’re a pork producer in 2022, you’re well aware of ongoing issues and challenges that face your operation and your industry. Unfortunately, one of these is the constant threat of foreign animal diseases (FADs) such as African Swine Fever (ASF).

Today, ASF is as close to the United States as the island nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti—both just one short boat or plane ride from our mainland. This brings the FAD threat much closer than it’s been in over 40 years and makes a recent Iowa State University study’s conclusion more frightening.

It calculated the hypothetical impact from an ASF outbreak to be as costly as $50 billion to the US pork industry if not controlled for 10 years.

It’s About Reducing Risk

Everyone can help protect our national herd from FAD by enhancing their own farm’s biosecurity plan.

To read the Full Article as it appeared in our Benchmark swine magazine, click HERE.


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Interview with Dr. Jayson Lusk: Market Impact of the Global Adoption of PRRS-Resistant Pigs

Video: Interview with Dr. Jayson Lusk: Market Impact of the Global Adoption of PRRS-Resistant Pigs

What is the economic impact of adopting the PRRS-resistant pig for farmers in the U.S.?

In this exclusive interview, Dr. Jayson Lusk, Dean of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University, shares insights from his latest research on the market impact of PRRS-resistant pigs.

Insights include:

•What happens to the global market if farmers in the U.S. adopt the PRRS-resistant pig

•The risks of not adopting the technology

•The ways pork producers can remain competitive against other proteins


This could be a pivotal moment for the pork industry – both for improving animal welfare and for enhancing the viability of pork producers.