Page 15 - National Poultry Newspaper

■ Letters to the Editor ■ Letters to the Editor ■ It is the responsibility of those making submissions to ensure the correctness of their claims and statements. The views expressed in this publication
NEW cases of African swine fever in Poland are due to spreading from farm to farm.
wild boar cases in Poland in 2020, only 600 fewer than 2019.
thusiasts among the staff members or the manager? Was staff regularly trained in disease detec- tion and was personnel
farming business can al- ways do more disease rec- ognition and awareness training.
Disease control method- ology is well established and there are more vet- erinarians skilled in pig medicine than ever before.
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With one or two excep- tions most of the Afri- can swine fever cases in Europe have occurred in wild boar and in small backyard farms readily accessed by wild boar.
According to reports from Wojciech Kosc and Michael Standaert, while the government recruited hunting clubs to assist in the control of wild boar, these associations are regularly accused of dis- regarding safety measures and helping rather than curbing the spread of the disease.
biosecurity enforced? Were records main-
Many farming busi- nesses are so focussed on personnel down-time between farm visits or leave they forget about the hole in the fence, to make sure the transport tray or other equipment has been cleaned and disinfected or that there is a biosecurity protocol in place for the driver.
The Polish cases should cause pork produc- tion businesses in their boardrooms, farm of- fices, conference rooms, lunchrooms and around the kitchen table to review once more their African swine fever disease pre- vention procedures.
On April 6, an outbreak of African swine fever was confirmed on a farm in Poland with 10,000 fattening pigs, which is outside the area where ASF has been occurring in wild boar.
and did they post-mortem dead pigs?
The farm is owned by Smithfield – the Chinese- owned US company.
Australia’s pork industry has had at least 18 months warning since the disease arrived in China and six months from East Timor’s declaration of infection.
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The source of the infec- tion was a group of ASF positive pigs shipped in mid-March from an in- fected sow farm.
This all indicates Smith- field farms are in a high- risk area.
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It is likely the affected pigs were about 14- to 15-weeks old and had been incubating infection for at least two weeks.
There are a number of biosecurity protocols available.
A/Hrs (07) 4663 5534
How did this happen?
It looks very much like Smithfield introduced the pigs from an infected farm in March though be- fore the disease was diag- nosed.
In 2013, the European Union commissioned a risk analysis for ASF.
They found Romania and Poland had a high risk because of the num- ber of small farms with poor biosecurity.
The pigs looked quite OK when they arrived ap- parently – at about 30kg live weight at the fatten- ing site and for about two weeks.
Spain was high risk be- cause of the number of workers from countries with ASF.
Several would have died at the new site but the disease moves slowly and it can take three weeks before the ASF mortality rate can be seen in farm data.
Spain, Romania and Po- land were also high risk because of wild boar habi- tation.
The UK, France and Ita- ly were high risk because of tourism.
Further, in the early stages the disease can look like any other cause of sudden death in grow- ing pigs and is easily confused with erysipelas, actinobacillus pleuro- pneumoniae, Strep suis and Glassers disease – if nobody looked too hard.
The analysis showed that if there were no farms with poor biosecurity, the risk to EU member states was very low to negli- gible.
On March 23, a 7000- sow farm within the Smithfield Polish business broke with ASF.
There are many un- knowns in this case.
The farm was in an ar- ea where there are many wild boar, and the ASF infection rate in wild boar in this area had been in- creasing over the past few months.
Was the original 7000- sow farm secure – were there gaps in the fence or under the gates a wild boar could have squeezed through in search of food or sex?
There have been 1600
Were there hunting en-
are not necessarily those of the publisher.
In early 2020, private broadcaster TVN24 alleg- edly exposed the lax bios- ecurity measures of one of the hunting associations, prompting a criminal in- vestigation.
Australia has a feral pig population that dwarfs the domestic herd.
ASF is in Timor, In- donesia and Papua New Guinea.
Biosecurity is an animal health and commercial imperative.
You would expect a company like Smithfield to run a tight ship.
While many of our ex- cellent workers are from countries where ASF is present there is often high staff turnover, hence
The author is chair of the Australian Pork Lim- ited ASF industry techni- cal group.
Ph (07) 4662 4333
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Possibly but there are many elements to bios- ecurity.
tained?
How often did vets visit
Was there a clean and dirty demarcation line at the farm perimeter?
On Australian farms over the last decade there have been numerous sto- ries of feral pigs feeding at silo spills and looking to get into a sow house.
It needs to be business as usual and part of every piggery’s workplace cul- ture.
Ross Cutler
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Australian Pork Newspaper, May 2020 – Page 15
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