Last week, Jennifer Shike reported at AgWeb Online that, “President Donald Trump signed legislation on [March 3rd] to protect the U.S. pork industry from the threat of the deadly African swine fever (ASF) virus through expanded agricultural inspections.
“S. 2107, the ‘Protecting America’s Food and Agriculture Act of 2019,’ authorizes the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to hire additional agricultural specialists, agricultural technicians and canine inspection teams to improve the security of the nation’s food supply.
“‘Ensuring we have enough agricultural inspectors at our borders is critical to maintaining a healthy U.S. swine herd,’ said National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President David Herring, a hog farmer from Lillington, N.C., in a release. ‘The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have done much to mitigate the risk to animal disease. Bolstered by this legislation, even more resources will be available to strengthen biosecurity at our borders. This is a victory for farmers, consumers and the American economy.'”
The article noted that, “As many as half of China’s entire breeding pig population died or were slaughtered because of the recent spread of ASF. In recent days, the spread of the disease has also been reported in the Philippines and Greece, and ongoing outbreaks have also been reported in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Cambodia, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and South Africa.”
