The August Pork Checkoff webinar for pork producers happens tomorrow and will feature Dr. Jack Shere from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and John Sagle from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Shere and Sagle will share how their agencies are working with the pork industry to prevent African swine fever from entering the U.S.

USDA will also explain how it is assisting the Dominican Republic and other countries in dealing with the costly disease.   

ASF was discovery recently in the Dominican Republic, the first report of the disease in the Americas after 40 years. On July 28, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic confirmed it had ASF after learning the results of tests on 389 samples collected from pigs raised on farms and in backyards that were sent to the USDA - Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (Plum Island) through an existing cooperative surveillance program. On August 2, the Dominican government reported the disease has been detected in 11 provinces.

The webinar entitled “What ASF in the Dominican Republic Means for U.S. Producers” is scheduled for Tuesday, August 10, at 1 p.m. CST. To register, click here.