The United States and Canada announced a plan this week to allow for “safe trade” to continue if African swine fever is reported in either country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have worked to modify their export certificates to allow trade of live swine, pet food and animal by-products and meat to continue in approved disease-free zones in the event of an ASF outbreak.
Zoning is an internationally recognized tool used to help manage diseases and facilitate trade. If a case of ASF is identified, geographic boundaries are defined to contain the outbreak. Geographic boundaries are control zones established under the World Organization for Animal Health guidelines. The areas outside of these control zones are disease-free zones.
A global threat, the two agencies say, “ASF cannot be addressed in isolation.” The agencies contend that working together is the best way to address the threat of ASF while maintaining trade of pork products which are important to the North American economies.
Source: National Association of Farm Broadcasters