Traceability: Stamping out ASF if it enters the US will require rapid and accurate traceability of the virus and animal movements. In 2022, Katherine Stack, Manager of Hog Procurement for Wholestone Farms, partnered with the US SHIP Traceability Task Force and Wholestone producers. Stack serves on the US SHIP leadership team and led a traceability pilot project using Wholestone and producer movement records to verify accuracy of the industry’s current traceability process. This inter-premises movement project was a collaborative effort with Wholestone farmer-owners including Pillen Family Farms. Historical movement records were collected for a 60-day period then the data was assessed for completeness, timing, and accuracy. Stack and the team recorded and reviewed almost 9000 unique animal movement records consisting of almost 3 million animals involving 17 US states. Results from the traceability project helped identify successful practices as well as opportunities for improvement. These results were shared at the Traceability Task Force meeting and the US SHIP House of Delegates meetings.

Dr. Christine Mainquist-Whigham, Health Director for Pillen Family Farms, worked with Stack on the traceability project. Mainquist-Whigham and the Pillen team are very passionate about protecting the US swine herd and FAD preparedness. The traceability pilot project inspired the Pillen team and other participants to refine their recording process of pig movements. The Pillen team furthered their efforts by conducting a mock traceability exercise with their SAHO’s team using Ag View and movement data which strengthened this important partnership. Establishing traceability data across all US producers and packers will take time and concerted effort. Wholestone Farms and the Pillen team are dedicated to furthering the development of a scalable, real-time inter-premises swine movement database.

Biosecurity: Key to controlling ASF is biosecurity. Our team at Wholestone Farms worked with our producer-owners to complete Enhanced Biosecurity plans for their farms. Biosecurity measures at every swine farm are critical for prevention and control. Farms with low or poor biosecurity practices are more likely to become infected with diseases and will make containment of an outbreak more challenging (FAO 2010; Guinat 2016; Alarcon 2021; Scollo 2023). Several State Animal Health Officials (SAHO) have shared that enhanced biosecurity plans will be a critical component of the US control program. Dr. Mainquist-Whigham and the Pillen team share this priority and continue to work on ensuring they have up to date SPS Enhanced Biosecurity plans for their farms. Dr. Mainquist-Whigham shared that “Everyone in the industry should be aware of the FAD preparedness steps that can be taken. One of the critical steps is to create an SPS Enhanced Biosecurity Plan and understand what it does for you – it is not a guarantee to prevent your farm from getting infected but can help reduce your risk.” Wholestone continues to work with all our producers on Enhanced Biosecurity plans and investigate tools to improve accessibility and transparency of this process.

Preparedness Exercises: Benefits of biosecurity extend beyond the boundary of the pig farm; biosecurity at our harvest facilities is also critical. For the past couple years, the Wholestone Farms and Prestage teams have worked on creating FAD response plans and enhanced biosecurity plans for our Fremont and Eagle Grove plants. We have coupled these efforts with regular mock outbreak exercises involving communication between our plant teams, multiple producer-owners, SAHO’s and USDA partners to gain a better understanding of expectations in the event of an FAD outbreak. Our ongoing discussions also led to our team hosting our SAHO and USDA partners to review our FAD Plans for the Fremont facility and spark continued engagement.

Wholestone Farms and many others in the swine industry are dedicated to moving forward together to protecting our swine herd from an ASF introduction and ensuring that we are prepared if an FAD enters our country.