Updated plans ✅

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is updating the Swine Hemorrhagic Fevers: African and Classical Swine Fevers Integrated Surveillance Plan to reflect recent enhancements in the program. 

• The initial plan dates back to 2019 in efforts to increase preparedness, and the updates are additional measures put in place over the last year since the first detections of ASF in the western hemisphere since the 80s.
• The detections, in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, were especially concerning because of these countries’ proximity to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

The additional efforts included in the updates are enhanced surveillance and additional surveillance activities over feral swine, updated case definitions, the addition of whole blood as an approved sample type, and clarifications about data sources. 

The updated plan can be viewed online.