Pig producers are being urged to start preparing contingency plans for African swine fever (ASF) now, so they will know how to react if their unit becomes infected or they get caught up in movement restrictions.
During a discussion on ASF preparadness, NPA senior policy adviser Katie Jarvis and AHDB senior animal health and welfare scientist Miranda Poulson told the NPA’s Pig Industry Group (PIG) the UK is much better prepared for an outbreak than it was a year ago.
This follows discussions, led by NPA and AHDB, which have brought together Defra, APHA and industry stakeholders to address concerns and improve knowledge.
However, stressed that an outbreak could have a huge impact on individual businesses and the wider industry and urged producers to up their biosecurity and do everything they can to prevent an outbreak.
Contingency planning
Over the last year or so, three supply chain workshops, which have included Defra, APHA and the Food Standards Agency (FSA), have been held.
The first was a pre-farmgate table-top simulation exercise looking broadly at what would happen on farm when ASF was suspected and then confirmed. A second focused on what would happen post-farmgate, particularly at the abattoir. A few weeks ago, a third covered transport, feed and haulage and issues like deadstock and rendering.
“They have all been really productive, but they tend to open more cans of worms than they close, so we are continuing to look for answers to the new questions that keep emerging,” Ms Poulson said.
There were also two producer-facing workshops last year, aimed at encouraging producers to start putting together a contingency plan for their farm.
“We tried to get across is the broad brush of what will happen, but also the idea that there is no fixed battle plan and there never will be, because everything is so case by case and risk-based,” Ms Poulson added.
“It depends on what animal it is detected in first, domestic or feral pig, where it is, how long it might have been in the country, where might it have gone. The scale of the restrictions imposed will always depend on those factors. There is not a concrete sequence of events, necessarily.”
Ms Jarvis stressed that while APHA will largely manage any infected premises, producers need contingency plans to cover the eventuality of being in a control zone, where potentially stringent restrictions will apply, including pig standstills and limited access
She highlighted the template contingency plan documents drawn up jointly by AHDB and NPA, which are available from both organisations. These are continually updated and can be altered to suit individual farms.
“If you are caught up in a zone, you could use that document to understand most of what would happen. We really want people to start thinking now about a contingency plan, if you haven’t already,” she said.
Outdoor unit uncertainty
Affected units would initially be subject to cleansing and disinfection (C&D) by APHA and would then be required to undertake and pay for secondary C&D themselves before they could restock.
Ms Jarvis explained that there is not yet a full explanation of what that would look like for a pig unit, but a group is looking now looking at developing secondary C&D protocols for ASF and classical swine fever for indoor and outdoor units.
The situation is more complicated for outdoor units, particularly as there are very few of them in Europe, so there are few precedents to work on.
ASF virus can live in the soil for a long time, and it could take 18 months to two years to restock on land on which pigs have been slaughtered and where blood has got into the soil. It remains unclear how that land should be treated. In addition, wooden equipment and fences cannot be cleaned by C&D, so producers would incur extra costs here.
Some of these questions are being addressed with ongoing research by APHA and the Pirbright Institute, as well as learnings from Europe.
“The process will be longer and harder for outdoor units, which is another reason why biosecurity is so important,” Ms Jarvis added.
In light of these sobering discussions, PIG agreed that renewed efforts need to be taken to urge all pig producers to steadfastly adhere to strict biosecurity procedures at all times.
Key messages
After the meeting, Ms Jarvis summarised five key messages for producers to help them prevent and prepare for ASF:
- It is far more likely that you will be in a control zone than be an infected premises, so you need to be prepared for a long standstill
- Write and regularly review a contingency plan with your vet and make sure all your staff are familiar with the plan
- Whether you are an infected premises, caught in a control zone or a contact premises, the better your movement records and the more information you can provide APHA the quicker restrictions can be lifted
- We are preparing but many decisions will risk assessed and made on a case-by-case basis, so it is impossible to account for all scenarios
- Secondary C&D will be complicated and costly to producers, so prevent the disease getting onto your farm in the first place – good biosecurity DOES work!