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USDA investing in African swine fever prevention

The U.S. continues to invest heavily in African swine fever prevention.

Dr. Jack Shere is with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“We are spending a great deal of resources, personnel and financial, on developing our response capabilities.”

He tells Brownfield Ag Secretary Vilsack has requested $500 million from the Office of Management and Budget to help control movement of swine products from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

“$500 million sounds like a lot of money, but when you look at what we may spend in the Dominican Republic alone, it’s possible we could spend up to $200 million only on indemnity there. So we want to be very cautious and very noteworthy of all the money we spend and track that very closely.”

APHIS estimates if African swine fever arrives in the U.S., it could cost $50 billion in lost pork exports over 10 years.