USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed African Swine Fever (ASF) in the Dominican Republic. This is the first time ASF has been found in the western Hemisphere since the 1980s.
Indiana State Veterinarian Dr. Bret Marsh said, “There were two provinces, two different farms in the Dominican Republic that were diagnosed with African Swine Fever, and this is a result of a surveillance program that the USDA established in the Dominican Republic in 2019.”
Marsh says ASF was found in the Monte Cristi Province along the Haitian border and 100 miles away in the Sánchez Ramírez Province. He indicated that USDA has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to ensure it increases inspections to keep out prohibited products from the U.S. “This was done to harden our borders, so to speak, and there have been inspections through Customs and Border Protection for meat products that are brought into the U.S. illegally,” Marsh says. Inspections will especially be intensified for passengers coming from the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The National Pork Producers Council Chief Veterinarian Dr. Liz Wagstrom says the enhanced measures are particularly important now that ASF has been detected in the western hemisphere for the first time in almost forty years. According to the NPPC, the U.S. remains free of ASF. Imports of pork and pork products into the U.S. from the Dominican Republic have been prohibited because of existing classical swine fever restrictions.
ASF is not a threat to human health and cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans and it is not a food safety issue. It was detected in China in 2018, and since then 15 other countries have reported cases.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
Good to hear that more rigid protocols will be enforced at our borders. ASF in the Dominican Republic is a little too close for comfort and we must protect the U.S. pork industry. You may recall that China lost over fifty percent of its swine herd due to ASF spreading across that continent. It later spread to other Southeast Asian countries and Europe. It’s a dangerous threat to our swine production and we are pleased that it is being dealt with in a rigorous, serious manner.
