A February 6th release by Undersecretary of the USDA Jenny Lester Moffett hypes the strategic planning between the USDA-Animal Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service of the Department of Homeland Security. The Agencies have issued a joint plan to share agricultural quarantine and inspection extending into 2026. Obviously interdicting disease at our borders is a critical component of prevention.
Recently, Customs and Border Protection has confiscated pork bologna at border crossing from Mexico that could potentially introduce African swine fever although this infection is not present in the herds of our southern neighbor but is endemic in Haiti and the contiguous Dominican Republic.
Strategic plans to prevent introduction of highly pathogenic avian influenza appears irrelevant given that migratory waterfowl are responsible for dissemination of the virus and have created a panornitic incorporating four continents. With respect to African swine fever, APHIS can be happy that pigs do not fly.