Swine Viral Diseases Spread in Feedstuffs

With African Swine Fever still spreading in China and other Asian Countries there is a lot of work being done to make sure it is not spread to the United States. African Swine Fever has a mortality rate of about 100 percent in pigs. Remember though, it does not affect humans and has no impact on food safety. When the outbreak began in China researchers began looking at virus transmission in feedstuffs. The concern was many vitamins needed for pork production are produced only in China. They are not available from anywhere else in the world.

"The science on viral transmission through feed and feedstuffs is still relatively young, but it has yielded some interesting and potentially useful information on mitigating the spread of costly viruses, such as African Swine Fever," said Paul Sundberg, Swine Health Information Center executive director. "This includes recognition that not all imported feedstuffs are manufactured and handled in the same way. It's important to know whether ingredients are produced under biosecure conditions and how they were shipped."

The amount of time to hold soybean meal to be sure any animal virus has degraded is 143 days at 36.9 degrees. At 59 degrees it would take only 52 days and at 86 degrees just 26 days. Dried Distillers Grains it takes much longer, 494 days at 36.9 degrees, 182 days at 59 degrees and 26 days at 86 degrees. Vitamin D would take 39 days at 36.9 degrees, 26 days at 59 degrees and 26 days at 86 degrees.

Looking at the results I was surprised at how long an animal virus could survive in the feedstuffs at cooler temperatures. Apparently animal virus does not survive well at higher temperatures. Notice in all the feedstuffs it only takes 26 days for the virus to degrade in all the feedstuffs. This will be valuable information for the USDA  and swine industry to prevent African Swine Fever from moving to the United States or North America.