Page 2 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Keeping out African swine fever together
Pig Industry Calendar of Events
2019
JUN 12-13 – Australian Biosecurity Symposium, Gold Coast, QLD www. biosym.com.au
JUN 18 – Victorian Pig Fair, Bendigo Harness Racing Facility, VIC E: vicpigfair@gmail.com
JUN 23-26 – International Symposium on Emerging and Remerging Pig Diseases, Santiago, Chile www. emerging2019.com/en
JUN 26-28 – Livestock Philippines Expo, World Trade Center, Manila, Philippines www.livestockphilippines.com
AUG 11 - 14 – The International Conference on Boar Semen Preservation, Hunter Valley, NSW www.boarsemen2019.com
AUG 25 - 28 – Asian Pig Veterinary Society Congress, Buscan, South Korea www.apvs2019.com/invit.html
AUG 26 - 29 – SafePork Conference, Berlin, Germany www.safepork- conference.com
SEP 21 - OCT 1 – Royal Melbourne Show, Melbourne Showgrounds VIC royalshow.com.au
OCT 19 - 21 – Leman China Swine Conference, Zhengzhou, China www. vetmed.umn.edu/news-events/leman- china-swine-conference
NOV 13 - 15 –2019 Pig Welfare Symposium, Minneapolis, US www.pork. org/events/pig-welfare-symposium
How to supply event details: Send all details to Australian Pork Newspaper, PO Box 387, Cleveland, Qld 4163, call 07 3286 1833 fax: 07 3821 2637, email: ben@porknews.com.au
porknews.com.au
07 3286 1833
AT the end of April, Manager Production Stewardship Lechelle van Breda travelled to Ottawa, Canada to at- tend the 2019 African swine fever forum host- ed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
CFIA organised the forum to: launch inter- national efforts to manage the risk of ASF in the Americas; learn from the recent outbreaks in Eu- rope and Asia; enhance regional co-operation and collaboration in the pre- vention, mitigation and response to the possible impacts of ASF in the Americas; and develop a roadmap for government, industry and international organisations to prevent and respond to ASF.
The forum provided a great opportunity for us to meet with and learn from our colleagues in the Americas and repre- sentatives from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and World Health Organisation to strengthen Australia’s pre- paredness for ASF.
While the framework developed was specific to the Americas, it is very applicable to Australia.
The key areas identified also need to be considered by Australia to we are ASF-ready.
Some of the key points were as follows.
Planning preparedness to ensure countries have a high state of readiness to allow them to swiftly control ASF should it en- ter their region.
Like the Americas, Aus- tralia is free of ASF – this provides us with a win- dow of opportunity to act decisively and co-ordinate in our preparation.
To achieve this, the fol- lowing actions are re- quired:
• Validate ASF plans and test response capabilities through simulation exercis- es involving stakeholders.
• Find solutions to infra- structure deficiencies to respond to ASF outbreaks. Governments should have contingency plans in place for mass disposal, and each farm should have disposal plans. Consideration should also be given to mental health risks for people in- volved, social acceptance of disposal methods and environmental issues as-
sociated with disposal and depopulation.
• Optimise rapid ASF detection by ensuring ca- pability for surveillance. Passive surveillance (done by farmers) is 55 percent more effective than ac- tive surveillance, as long as people are trained to recognise the signs and symptoms of ASF.
• Consider farmer com- pensation for reporting the disease and financial incentives for hunters to report disease/carcasses in wild/feral pig popula- tions – this was done in the Czech Republic.
• Collaborate interna- tionally to identify and prioritise critical ASF research to create or im- prove response tools. Of course, an effective vac- cine would be a game- changer in the global re- sponse to ASF. The ASF virus is large and complex – it’s not known what the majority of genes (around 150) do. Greater research effort and investment on a global level is needed not only in vaccines but also in improved diag- nostics. The 87th General Assembly of OIE Nation- al Delegates, held from May 26-31, 2019, called for the establishment of a global initiative to control the disease (and hopefully eradicate it) and to reduce its devastating economic impacts on the pig indus- try. This initiative will be co-ordinated by the OIE and Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Enhanced biosecurity measures need to be in place to prevent the entry of ASF into domestic and wild pig populations and mitigate its spread within these populations.
It is important that bio- security strategies must be constantly adapted, both on-farm and at the border.
The key actions are to: •Identify key threats,
gaps and best practices in national border biosecurity, including establishment of appropriate level of activity, informed by risk.
• Establish effective col- laborations between bor- der authorities to share intelligence and best ap- proaches to prevent the entry of ASF.
• Communicate to all stakeholders what their responsibilities are with biosecurity to foster a cul- ture of compliance with biosecurity policies by travellers.
• Involve stakeholders in government, industry and academia to gain an understanding of epide- miology of feral/wild pig populations and share management practices at borders and the interface with domestic pigs.
Ensuring business con- tinuity and mitigate the trade impacts of ASF on the pig sector, both na- tionally and internation- ally, while controlling and eradicating the disease by:
• Risk-based domestic movements of animals and animal products to keep industry viable in the event of an outbreak.
• Providing guidance and technical support to develop common stand- ards to support the estab- lishment of zones.
• Proactively negotiating the recognition of zoning approaches with trading partners to reduce imped- iments to market access. It is recognised that these conversations should take place before the disease enters the country and will also require strong partnerships between in- dustry, regulators and vet- erinary services so these can be implemented.
• Work with internation- al partners and the OIE to develop globally recog- nised and accepted guid- ance on the application of compartmentalisation for
ASF, both in infected and uninfected countries. Un- derstanding of our trading partner requirements is needed in order to be con- sidered free of a disease.
Co-ordinated risk com- munications on ASF are required with target au- diences to encourage in- formed decision-making, behaviour modification and trust in governments and industry.
As recognised by the OIE, clear and transparent communication is essen- tial for all of the different sectors (including regula- tors, border control, pig producers and processors, pig veterinarians, stock- feed manufacturers and suppliers, transporters, hunters, research provid- ers and tourists) to fully understand their roles and responsibilities in the im- plementation of the meas- ures required.
To enable this, we need to:
• Develop a consistent approach to communicat- ing risk, adapted to the specific needs and cir- cumstances of countries through a range of strat- egies. Messaging should be consistent and uncom- plicated, widely avail- able, accurate, regular and available in multiple lan- guages.
• Identify or develop platforms and mecha- nisms for ongoing co-or- dination of messaging and sharing of communica- tions-related information between countries.
• Establish mechanisms for monitoring public dia- logue on ASF, and to de- tect and correct to ensure narrative in media and so- cial media is accurate. Key recommendations and next steps
• Conduct exercises test country preparedness plans for ASF and estab- lish a mechanism to share lessons learnt across the region.
•Promote a regional partnership to share refer- ence material, laboratory services, and to transfer diagnostic capacity to facilitate early detection and development of new, rapid diagnostics and field testing. This partnership should support countries in assessment of readi- ness for ASF and share tools and build rapid risk assessment capacity. It should also support the
global ASF Research Al- liance to continue to co- ordinate research efforts to address gaps, particu- larly for the development of an ASF vaccine.
• Establish a standing group of experts on ASF to build a closer co-oper- ation among countries in preparing for ASF. The group should be multidis- ciplinary, with expertise in areas like feral/wild pig control and biosecurity, arthropod vectors (ticks), border security, epidemi- ology, disease modelling and laboratory science.
• Encourage the inter- national Liaison Group on Risk Communications Fo- cal Points to serve as a re- source and co-ordination platform to facilitate in- formation sharing related to ASF risks.
• Request the OIE de- velop specific guidance on the implementation of zoning and compartmen- talisation for ASF. Australian African swine fever summit
While Canada was hold- ing its ASF forum, the ASF summit was held on May 3 in Adelaide.
Attendees included Aus- tralia’s chief veterinary officer Dr Mark Schipp, state and territory CVOs, representatives from Ani- mal Health Australia, pig veterinarians, processors, feed manufacturers and government and state rep- resentatives and officials.
The aim was to collec- tively identify gaps and opportunities (including opportunities for further collaboration), prioritise further activities and in- form co-ordinated ASF preparedness plans.
Much work is required to action the outcomes identified and discussed at the summit.
These are being pro- gressed by Austral- ian Pork Limited in col- laboration with the state CVOs, the Department of Agriculture and Wa- ter Resources, pig veteri- narians, Animal Health Australia and Stock Feed Manufacturers’ Council of Australia.
Further details will be provided over coming weeks.
For more information on items discussed in this ar- ticle, please contact me on 0423 056 045 or heather. channon@australianpork. com.au
Page 2 – Australian Pork Newspaper, June 2019
www.porknews.com.au
by HEATHER CHANNON Research and Innovation General Manager
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