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African swine fever concerns Iowa pork producers

African swine fever (ASF) continues to be a major concern for pork producers. 

Trent Thiele, a young pork producer from Elma, Iowa says the possibility of an ASF outbreak is one of his biggest concerns.

“I’m afraid that if it were to hit here, the value of my pigs would pretty much diminish, because a lot of our trading partners would not be interested in them,” Thiele says.

Heidi Vittetoe is with JWV Pork, which has 100 company-owned and contract production sites in southeast Iowa. She says biosecurity is a top priority but documenting all of the movements on each farm is a big challenge.

“Actually, the pig movements are pretty easy. But it’s the people movements—service personnel, feed trucks, veterinarians, any of that kind of traffic—it’s hard functionally to keep track of all of that and have it in any kind of a meaningful access,” Vittetoe says.

Vittetoe participated in a USDA-sponsored ASF exercise last fall, which she says helped to identify weak spots in their biosecurity plan. 

Pam Zaabel with Iowa State University served as an observer in the ASF exercise, which involved pork operations in 14 states.  Zaabel says there’s been progress, but the industry still has more work to do to get ready for a potential ASF outbreak.

“We have some producers that have been working longer at it and are maybe a little farther ahead—and we have others that are just more being introduced to the concept and maybe need some more resources coming their way to help get them prepared,” Zaabel says.

Brownfield spoke with Thiele, Vittetoe and Zaabel at Iowa Pork Congress in Des Moines.