The U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan, or U.S. SHIP, is a producer-driven national program serving as a unified industry playbook centered around biosecurity, traceability and sampling and testing for animal health challenges. Al Wulfekuhle with the National Pork Board, talks about the benefits of U.S. SHIP.
“What U.S. SHIP does is it takes the recommendations from industry experts, from farmers, from state and federal animal health officials to the biosecurity of your site, the surveillance for disease, and then traceability, right? It’s huge. If we do get a foreign animal disease in this country, we have to be able to find it, trace it, and stamp it out quickly. That’s what US SHIP’s all about. It’s all about making the best decisions to help producers.”
Wulfekuhle is an Iowa pork producer who knows firsthand the benefits of being U.S. SHIP certified.
“We were one of the first to get U.S. SHIP-certified. I’m passionate about this program. It’s a commitment by producers, but it’s trusting that we’re going to make the right decisions. And, as a pig producer myself, that’s been in this business for a long time, there is nothing worse than going into a barn and dealing with sick pigs that are subject to disease. It’s an awful feeling to go in, and no matter what you do, you’re gonna have pigs that get sick and die. If we can improve that at all, I mean, it would just make life better for everybody.
He says it’s all about keeping animals safe from disease and the more producers that get involved, the better it will be for the U.S. pork industry.
“We look at the long-term vision of U.S. SHIP with the goal that all producers would be enrolled in it, and packers would adapt to it. That’s when the real power of U.S. SHIP comes in because it would be incredibly important during a foreign animal disease to show our meat buyers, either domestic or international, that the pigs that they’re buying, the meat they’re buying, is healthy, from healthy pigs that are certified disease free.”
Visit usswinehealthimprovementplan.com for more details.