Starting back in 2020, the National Pork Board?s African swine fever working group was reviewing various on-farm preparedness efforts. ASF is a tough virus to get rid of, especially since pig carcasses can still transmit the virus if they aren’t properly disposed of. Dr. Lisa Becton, NPB director of swine health, said the Checkoff helped to fund a study that took a look at ASF survivability.
?And we’ve since received results back from that study, and it does show that if producers utilize composting as their method for carcass disposal, if you’re reaching the temperatures that are listed by USDA NRCS, then yes, composting is effective against ASF,? Dr. Becton said.
Dr. Becton said the working group has geared up once again for further research with their partners in Vietnam to make sure the research proves the virus is dead after proper disposal.
?Both types of disposal, we’re redoing those original tests and adding in additional bioassay to ensure both in composting and shallow burial with carbon are truly in fact able to deactivate ASF in those methods,? Dr. Becton said.
The funding for both the 2020 and 2022 study came from Pork Checkoff dollars.
?Producer monies are going back to covering producer priorities because we want to make sure that we’re using the feedback from our producers of, hey, these are things that we need to know and a priority for us, then us as Pork Board staff can say okay let’s find the researchers that can help us answer these questions and our other research partners and get it done,? Dr. Becton said.
Dr. Becton added that investing research dollars now shows it?s better to be prepared ahead of time versus being in the middle of the problem. The current research findings, though looking at ASF, can also be used for day-to-day disease control like PRRS and PEDV.
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