WASHINGTON – The National Pork Producers Council is asking for stakeholders in the pork industry supply chain to chime in on updates to its traceability standards. A task force convened in 2022 with the goal of preventing the introduction of foreign animal diseases into the United States created the standards. A finalized, approved resolution is slated for a vote in 2024 at the National Pork Industry Forum and will later be submitted for consideration by the US Department of Agriculture. Comments on the proposed updates are being accepted until Oct. 27, 2023.

The NPPC said the updates to the standards address gaps in the following areas:

Breeding stock of all kinds whose movements are currently difficult to track; registration of all producers’ premises including cull and breeding facilities and show pig farms; maintaining a centralized database to monitor and report movement of all pigs that is available to animal health officials.

NPPC said there is currently $7.7 billion worth of US pork being consumed by international consumers each year and it is incumbent on producers to ensure their global trading partners that the products are sourced from disease-free farms.

“Approximately 1 million pigs are in transit every day, giving diseases plenty of opportunities to spread,” said Scott Hays, NPPC president and a pork producer from Missouri. “With the growing threat of a foreign animal disease reaching the United States, the need to address gaps in our existing traceability system is important for our farms and our industry.”