Vita Plus takes every precaution in wake of African Swine Fever

Posted on September 14, 2018 in Swine Performance
By Dr. Leah Kellesvig

As we are all aware, African Swine Fever (ASF) was found in China a little more than one month ago, and nearly 40,000 hogs have been culled to stop the disease from spreading.  The Chinese government has banned pork exports and restricted the transport of live animals within the country, but it is struggling to contain the outbreak.

Vita Plus has and will continue to take every action to protect the quality and safety of the products we provide you.  According to the USDA and FDA, “a variety of data gaps and other unknowns make it impossible to accurately define or validate feed risk.”  We are waiting for further direction from groups, such as the USDA, APHIS, AFIA and NPPC, regarding proven strategies for ASF mitigation.

Using the knowledge available at this point, we are currently working to mitigate the risk of ASF transmission.  We will utilize new information about products, procedures and tests that may further reduce the viability of the ASF virus as it becomes available.

Vita Plus takes this threat very seriously.  We are in close contact, and in collaboration, with industry organizations to better understand the potential for ASF transmission through feed ingredients.  We have strict supplier verification, ingredient receiving, employee training, and biosecurity policies and procedures in place, and we are happy to share the details of these processes with you if you would like.  Situations like this are exactly why we work hard to ensure our compliance with the recent Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations, and why we recently completed our audits and third-party verification of our Safe Feed/Safe Food certifications.

It is now more important than ever that all pork producers practice strict biosecurity measures on their own operations to reduce the risk for pathogen transmission.  Contact your Vita Plus consultant to receive more information about what we are doing as a company to reduce the risk for ASF transmission, or if you would like more information about what you can do on your own operation to reduce your risk.

Category: Animal health
Business management
Swine Performance