Pork sector stakeholders are expressing their concerns over the potential risk to agriculture from movement of dogs to the United States and Canada by animal rescue organizations to save them from the meat trade in China. North American pork sector stakeholders are working with the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to address the threat of foreign animal disease transmission, particularly African Swine Fever, posed by pets coming into North America for rehoming.
Dr. Paul Sundberg, the Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Center, explains the supplies used in shipments, such as kennels and bedding materials, are of special concern because of their potential to act as vectors for disease transmission.
Clip-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:
We really don't know how many are coming. We have information that says that it's fairly regular and the numbers in the shipments vary. The purpose is animal rescue and there's no argument with animal rescue from markets in China. That's fine.
Bring them here and find a permanent home for them in the U.S. but the risk is such that we want to make sure that state animal health officials are aware, we want to make sure that the USDA is aware so that the items that come with those dogs in the form of bedding and food and crates, etcetera are all regulated, they're destroyed so they won't be an issue of perhaps being contaminated with some disease that we don't want here and then transferring to the industry.
The Centers for Disease Control and USDA share responsibility for this and so we're working with both of those to make sure that we've got some oversight over the process.
Source : Farmscape