Foreign animal disease is an ever-present worry for livestock producers in the United States. Foreign animal disease prevention and mitigation measures have been implemented throughout the livestock industry to give producers a leg up in the fight against potential disease outbreaks. Although it has never been detected in the United States, African Swine Fever is a massive concern for the hog industry and any steps to prevent the disease entering the U.S. are welcome.
Dusty Oedekoven is the chief veterinarian for the National Pork Board. Although there is not yet an approved and commercially available vaccine to fight African Swine Fever, he says that the United States leads the way in the work to develop a vaccine to fight ASF.
Oedekoven recently attended the Global Consortium on African Swine Fever Virus in Rome with other world experts to discuss lessons learned from the disease, prevention and mitigation strategies, and an update on vaccine development.
He says trials are underway on vaccine technologies right now, but the data collection phase of the trials will be the next important step.
That is Dusty Oedekoven, the chief veterinarian for the National Pork Board.
