Iowa Participates in USDA’s Multi-State Foreign Animal Disease Functional Exercises
14 states participated in a disease response simulation held Sept. 23-26, 2019
DES MOINES, Iowa (Sept. 27, 2019) — The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship participated in a four-day simulation led by USDA APHIS to test current foreign animal disease response plans. The Department was joined by USDA representatives, state organizations and industry leaders to walk through plans that would be put into action in the event of a real foreign animal disease outbreak.
This four-day workshop focused on an African Swine Fever outbreak, which affects feral, production and pet pigs. The top 14 swine producing states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Texas) participated in a series of exercises and drills specific to African Swine Fever.
“An African Swine Fever outbreak does not represent a human health or food safety threat but it could be devastating to Iowa’s farmers and economy,” said Secretary Mike Naig. “Our first goal is to prevent a foreign animal disease from entering the U.S. and this workshop is one of many steps the Department has taken to prepare. Over the last four days, we’ve worked with USDA, state agencies, legislators, pork industry representatives and 14 other states to test our plans. I want to thank everyone who participated in the exercise. I am pleased with the outcome, we’ve discovered what works well and identified a few scenarios we still need to talk through so we can respond quickly if a real outbreak occurs.”
Each day of the exercise focused on different tactics deployed during an outbreak — detection, containment, eradication and cleaning and disinfection. This allowed the USDA, the Iowa Department of Agriculture, state agencies, industry representatives and producers to put response plans into action to make sure they could be executed quickly and effectively.
African Swine Fever is a highly infectious disease that causes high mortality rates in pig populations. Currently, there is no treatment or vaccine available for pigs. The virus has been detected in countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. The disease has not been found in North America at this time.
The disease is not a threat to human health and is not a food safety issue. The pork industry provides over 140,000 jobs and contributes $36.7 billion to Iowa’s economy.
To learn more about African Swine Fever visit iowaagriculture.gov/fad.