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Australian pork industry disappointed with US handling of pig virus

ABC Rural Lucy Barbour
Pig virus spread worrying Australian pork industry


Australian Pork Limited

The Australian pork industry has criticised the United States' handling of a deadly virus that's wiping out pig herds across North America.

The porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus broke out in the US last May and it's already spread to 29 different states, as well as to Canada and Colombia.

Australian Pork Limited's general manager of research and innovation, Darryl D'Souza, says the US Department of Agriculture's biosecurity protocols haven't been strict enough to limit or break the spread of the virus.

"Very early on in the piece, the authorities over there deemed it not to be a notifiable disease and that in some ways prevented a possible collection of accurate data that may have even removed some of the preparedness," he said

"Canada, on the other hand, has taken a very different approach and has made it notifiable, so as soon as you have any symptoms, you have to report it.

"That allows the authorities to take the necessary precautions in terms of quarantining sights, preventing feed trucks going out, preventing movement of animals and things like that."

Mr D'Souza says he's surprised by how quickly the virus has spread.

"The (US) biosecurity protocols (don't) seem to be appropriate to prevent or break the spread of this virus, but equally we're also finding that this virus is behaving very differently in the US than it does in, say, Asia," he said.

"It is very virulent, it is very hot and it doesn't take much of the virus to cause an outbreak.

"But having said that, (the US) has certainly been hampered by their weather. It's really difficult to clean trucks and things like that when the weather's below freezing."

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