Written by Lee Johnston, Sarah Schieck-Boelke, and Diane DeWitte.
Pig farmers manage and operate finely-tuned farms that produce pigs consistently and efficiently. These farms are part of a coordinated industry that are inter-connected with grain farmers, veterinarians, feed companies, equipment suppliers, marketing specialists, bankers, transport companies, packers, and the list goes on. This system of producing pigs and pork works smoothly until disaster strikes, then farmers and their supporting industries must “adjust on the fly” to maintain food production. The disaster could be torrential rains and flooding, a blizzard with heavy snows, a tornado, a fire, a pandemic that closes packing plants or an outbreak of a Foreign Animal Disease (FAD).
A FAD is a contagious or infectious disease of animals that is not commonly found in a particular geographic region. Foot and Mouth Disease, African Swine Fever, and Classical Swine Fever are some examples of FAD’s that the U.S. swine industry is guarding against. FAD’s are particularly troublesome because they typically spread easily, are difficult to control, compromise health of livestock, and often disrupt trade with countries that are free of the disease. Many times, there are no vaccines to prevent the disease or defined treatments that cure the disease. Consequently, susceptible animals are destroyed humanely to limit animal suffering and control spread of the disease. Clearly, an outbreak of a FAD in the U.S. would be a disaster for pig farmers and the highly coordinated swine industry.
If a FAD is introduced in the U.S. swine industry accidentally or intentionally, the only way to control spread of the disease is to know where infected pigs are located. This requires pig farmers, barn workers, veterinarians, and anyone with pig contact to be on the lookout for outward signs of the disease. Once a disease outbreak is suspected, government animal health officials, farmers, and private veterinarians must coordinate to confirm presence of the disease. Presence of disease is confirmed by collecting samples from live pigs and tissue from dead pigs that are submitted to official Veterinary Diagnostic Labs for analysis. These samples must be collected from the appropriate pig(s) in a very precise manner and shipped to the lab using strictly controlled procedures.
Quick responses (within 24 hours) by trained personnel are crucial to identifying and containing a FAD outbreak before it spreads across large geographic areas. Response times can be greatly reduced if trained personnel are located throughout the pig producing areas enabling brief travel times to reach the site of a suspected outbreak. An effective FAD response requires many people trained to collect samples and located in areas where pig production is common. Out of this need, the Certified Swine Sample Collector program (CSSC) was developed with funding from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service through the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program. Additional program materials were funded by the Pork Checkoff. The CSSC program is designed to train everyday people that work in the swine industry to collect samples if there is a suspected FAD outbreak.
In 2024, the University of Minnesota Swine Extension team led by Sarah Schieck-Boelke, Regional Extension Educator, was awarded a training grant from the National Pork Board to increase the number of Certified Swine Sample Collectors in Minnesota. In addition to Sarah, the team included: Diane DeWitte and Sabrina Florentino, Regional Extension Educators; Cesar Corzo and Marie Culhane, U of MN Veterinary College; and Lee Johnston, Extension Specialist. David Weinand, MN Department of Agriculture, provided important connections to state agencies necessary if the certified samplers are ever deployed.
A CSSC training was held at the WCROC on September 12, 2024. Seven industry personnel were trained and certified by Dr. Kathleen Jost, H & H Veterinary Clinic. The training began with a classroom session to instruct trainees on the procedures used to collect and submit samples and why those procedures are critical to accurate testing. After lunch, trainees moved to the Stevens County Fairgrounds for a hands-on session to practice what they learned in the classroom. Samples of saliva, nasal secretions, and blood were collected from four live pigs by the trainees. The pigs were humanely euthanized then trainees collected samples from liver, spleen, tonsils, lymph nodes, and trachea.
Trainees commented that they learned a lot in the training and felt confident to collect samples if ever called upon by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture or Board of Animal Health. Hopefully we have prepared a portion of the swine industry for a disaster that will never happen!