ARRIVES FOR FAD PREPAREDNESS An Integrated Navigation Tool

OHIO PRODUCERS GET THE NATION’S MOST COMPREHENSIVE ONLINE DASHBOARD.

The threat of foreign animal disease (FAD) is not anything new to Ohio’s pork producers and its industry and government counterparts. However, the best estimates of what a disease such as African swine fever (ASF) could mean to the nation’s pork industry continue to skyrocket – making the case for active preparedness measures even stronger.

“As a producer, we know the risks that we all face every day on the farm that we are used to dealing with at some time or another, but something like African swine fever is on another scale altogether,” says Nick Seger, Ohio Pork Council president and producer from Minster, Ohio. “A disease like this hitting our country, let alone Ohio or your own farm, would cause unbelievable chaos and isn’t something that gets resolved quickly.”

In a new study from Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes, the damage from ASF to the domestic pork industry would be $7.5 billion per year and a loss of 60,000 directemployment jobs. Since pork and beef markets are intertwined, he puts the collective loss estimate at a staggering $79.5 billion for ASF alone over 10 years. In an even more dire scenario with ASF and foot-and-mouth disease happening at the same time, Hayes calculates the estimate soaring to an unbelievable $231 billion in combined pork-beef losses.

The losses to the U.S. pork industry from ASF and/or FMD would also be felt by the nation’s corn and soybean farmers as livestock morbidity and mortality rates rise and inventories go down. Hayes says corn revenues could suffer by $7 billion to $15 billion depending on the disease scenario, creating an even bigger blow to rural America.

Ohio Pork’s FAD Dashboard Is Live

To help our state’s pork industry be better prepared for a costly FAD event in the United States, the Ohio Pork Council has created the nation’s first state-specific one-stop FAD resources site for producers, veterinarians, and government officials. The online tool, which is an interactive dashboard, can be found at www.FADReady.org. Once there, users simply choose which path of information they wish to go down – Pork Producer, Herd Veterinarian, or Ohio Organizations/ Officials. From there, only information relevant to that user will be shown as a further choice to select or action to take.

The site, partially funded through Pork Checkoff, is open and free to use by anyone involved in the Ohio pork industry. (Note: This site is separate from the national site recently announced by the National Pork Board.) The dashboard itself does not collect any information. Any information collected by linked tools and sites such as Secure Pork Supply, AgView or U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan (US SHIP) have their own data protection measures and questions about those should be directed to their respective contacts.

Mike King Senior Director of Communications and Public Relations

Since pork and beef markets are intertwined, Economist Dermot Hayes puts the collective loss estimate at a staggering $79.5 billion for ASF

“The Ohio Pork dashboard is up and running today because of the clear need seen by the OPC board several years ago,” Seger says. “The goal is to provide everyone with a more clearcut way to navigate through the numerous forms, tools and information that the pork industry has developed over the past few years to help us all get better prepared for an FAD event.”

Although the Ohio Pork Council FAD Dashboard is fully functional today, it’s by no means a “finished” product.

“We are very happy to have launched this feature-packed tool to our state’s pork industry, but we know there will be many more iterations and improvements to be made in coming months,” said Cheryl Day, OPC executive vice president. “Just like our producers on the farm, we’re all about continuous improvement when it comes to this dashboard. For that reason, we are always happy to receive feedback from stakeholders on how resources such as this can be improved.”

How to Use the OPC FAD Dashboard

After accessing the site at www.FADReady.org or directly from the www.ohiopork.org site, users can quickly choose which path they wish to take by clicking on the corresponding color-coded hexagons. (See below) From there, each user type (Producer, Herd Veterinarian, Government) must choose either Preoutbreak Preparedness or Local Outbreak Response.

After this point, the user simply follows along the path of choices that include both action steps to take (arrows) and/or provide relevant additional information. By completing the steps and acting on the additional information provided through the various linked sites, users should reach their intended goal of achieving greater FAD preparedness with the objective on being in a much better position to return to normal business in the wake of an FAD event.

Ohio FAD Dashboard Screenshot:

At top, this is the view of the homepage you will see when you visit the site. At bottom is the view of the site under Producer Must-Do Actions, which are indicated in red, sequential order.

The Time to Start Is Now

No matter where you currently stand in FAD preparation, now is the time to start – not after an FAD event has been declared. Whether you need something simple like a new premises identification number (PIN) for a new barn, whether you need to know more about how AgView will be critical in helping your farm in an FAD crisis, or if you want to know more about what full enrollment in the comprehensive U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan (US SHIP) entails, OPC’s FAD Dashboard can help you do it.

Let the Tool Help You

The goal of the OPC FAD Dashboard is to make it much easier for all producers get on the path to ultimate protection against the negative effects of FAD like African swine fever. As you know, OPC encourages producers to: 1.) Complete the Secure Pork Supply Plan. (ohiopork. org/sps) 2.) Use AgView, the national disease-tracing platform created by the National Pork Board. (porkcheckoff.org/agview) And, 3.) Enroll in the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan, which helps to bring everything together in one place and will likely be an official USDA program soon. (usswinehealthimprovementplan.com). The new dashboard can help you navigate to all of these areas with logical, step-by-step instructions and information.

Because the OPC FAD Dashboard is a new tool, and one that all producers, veterinarians, and other partners need to understand and feel comfortable in using, OPC plans to communicate much more about the tool in coming weeks. Please stay tuned for that information. In the meantime, please feel free to contact OPC staff for assistance at pork@ohiopork.org or call 614-882-5887.

Ohio

Here, you see what you will find under Pork Producer Local Outbreak Response, with red indicating MustDo Actions and black text indicating Next Steps.