Keeping the U.S. pork industry healthy and free of foreign disease is a top priority for producers and the organizations that represent them at the state and federal levels. And between African Swine Fever and the new Japanese encephalitis virus, biosecurity is front and center.
Dr. Paul Sundberg is the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, a research network that focuses on emerging diseases in the pork industry. Checkoff funding has given the Swine Health Information Center the opportunity to focus on emerging swine disease risk.
SHIC’s international monitoring uncovered an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis virus in Australia early in 2022. Australia’s pork producers have lost an estimated 6 percent to 10 percent of their production.
“JEV is our potential ‘next PED,’ but worse because the virus can infect both pigs and people,” explains Sundberg. “We may be able to stop JEV from arriving in the U.S., or it may get here this week.”
SHIC knows the U.S. pork industry can’t expect the virus to wait on preparedness efforts so it prioritized the work to address it urgently. SHIC brought together Australian producers, animal health researchers, and animal and public health regulatory agencies with the USDA, CDC, and U.S. researchers to see what lessons can be learned from the Australian experience to help prevent JEV from getting to the U.S. or, if it does get in, to be prepared to respond quickly.
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