Farmscape for November 26, 2025

The Swine Health Information Center is highlighting the increased risk of foreign animal disease transmission posed by the movement of people during the holiday season.
As part of its November eNewsletter the Swine Health Information Center has released its monthly domestic and global swine diseases monitoring reports.
SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says globally Foot and Mouth Disease virus continues to expand across multiple areas of the world and African Swine Fever was seen for the first time in Taiwan.

Quote-Swine Health Information Center-Dr. Lisa Becton:
This first case in Taiwan involved a 300 head sow farm.
When they did the investigation of this herd, it was suspected that undercooked swill or garbage was the source of the outbreak.
Since the outbreak was identified the Taiwanese government has been very proactive in implementing different things that they can to reduce and stop the spread of the disease, such as culling infected animals, quarantine the farm and also movement restrictions in or out of the property.
What this means for producers in the U.S. is that it can still be a threat.
Because there are farms that may feed swill, it is always very important to ensure that you're cooking any kind of garbage to the right temperature but, even more importantly, don't bring meat and meat products into a farm.
This could be for foreign animal diseases but also for other diseases as well.
And, right now during the holidays, there's going to be an increased movement of people going overseas and traveling so it's very important to remember, don't bring any sausages, cooked meats or any other meat products from overseas back into the U.S. or back into your farm.

Dr. Becton observes when people travel overseas, they may want to bring comfort foods or foods of interest back from their home countries.
She says the public does play a role in protecting North American agriculture by not bringing unapproved meats or meat products into the U.S.
The Swine Health Information Center's domestic and global swine disease monitoring reports can be found at swinehealth.org.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers