By Diane DeWitte, UMN Extension swine educator
Originally printed in The LAND - as March 14, 2025 Swine & U column
Much of UMN Extension’s swine work involves disease preparedness. Not only are foreign animal diseases (FAD) a threat, but the endemic seasonal diseases faced by pig farmers every day require mitigation efforts.
The three FADs that swine producers prepare to NOT get are African Swine Fever (ASF), Classical Swine Fever (CSF), formerly known as hog cholera and eradicated in the US in 1978, and Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD), which was also eradicated in the US in 1929. FMD can also infect cattle, sheep, goats, deer and more.
Typical prevention education includes assisting producers in creating an enhanced biosecurity plan through the Secure Pork Supply (SPS) process. Nationally, SPS provides a common template of farm map creation, identification of a biosecurity lead person on the farm, enhanced plans for feed and other deliveries, mortality disposal, employee entrance & exit, manure hauling and movement on and off the farm. Producers taking time to think through and create their specific plan and review it with their veterinarian annually helps keep biosecurity preparation on the front burner.
Each state handles its SPS individually, collaborating with the Board of Animal Health, the Department of Agriculture and herd veterinarians ensures that farms keep their SPS plan updated. In Minnesota, our SPS coordinator is David Weinand. Weinand serves as the Secure Food Supply contact for all species, and he’s the person we work with when addressing secure pork. He can be reached at david.weinand@state.mn.us. Folks with questions about an SPS plan for their farm can get information at www.securepork.org.
An additional element of strategic disease outbreak preparedness is the US Swine Health Improvement Plan (US-SHIP). This USDA Veterinary Services initiative is a biosecurity, traceability and disease surveillance platform which was developed to be a national strategy for disease preparedness. US-SHIP’s principal objectives are to develop and implement ASF and CSF Monitored Certification of US pig farm sites and slaughter facilities. Each state recruits and encourages participation in US-SHIP to demonstrate freedom from the diseases and support ongoing pork industry commerce outside of any specific disease outbreak area. Producers can learn more about US-SHIP at https://usswinehealthimprovementplan.com/, or here in Minnesota through the Board of Animal Health at https://z.umn.edu/MNUSSHIP.
Training has been formalized through the USDA and the trained personnel are known as Certified Swine Sample Collectors (CSSC). CSSC is a portion of the Secure Pork Supply program. It is taught by Category II accredited veterinarians, i.e., veterinarians authorized to work with a wide range of animals, including all food & fiber livestock and more. The training includes a classroom portion of USDA developed curriculum taught by a veterinarian and wrapped up with an exam requiring an 80% passing score.
The second portion of the CSSC training requires participants to demonstrate proficiency in live animal fluid sample collection; class members must collect blood, nasal and oral fluid samples. Following live animal sample collection, CSSC trainees then demonstrate that they can collect postmortem samples: tonsils, spleen, and specific lymph nodes. In addition to collecting the samples, they must demonstrate their ability to correctly package the samples and ship appropriately to the lab.
The National Pork Board had set aside pork check-off dollars for several Swine Education and Outreach Professional Grants, developed specifically for swine educators across the country to provide programming in critical areas of swine education.
Schieck Boelke and the group proposed a series of CSSC training workshops across Minnesota in 2024 to boost the number of available CSSCs who would be ready to collect samples. UMN Animal Science professor Lee Johnston and Extension Educators Sabrina Florentino and Diane DeWitte were added as collaborators on the project. The proposal covered the logistics of providing training for pig producers: Schieck Boelke submitted a plan to secure Category II veterinarians to teach the class, supply classroom materials for the class, find locations for the training, make sample collection kits for each participant, purchase pigs for the workshop’s live animal activities, manage logistics and paperwork, and provide lunch!
In March 2024 the group learned that the National Pork Board agreed to fund the project, and the activities were set in motion. Due to the need for one-on-one interaction between participants and veterinarians, the workshops were limited to 12 participants. The project targeted all levels of pig production and kicked off during the Minnesota State Fair with a CSSC training for show pig producers held at the swine production facilities on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus. The next workshop was hosted at the UMN West Central Research & Outreach Center (WCROC) at Morris, MN. For biosecurity reasons, the pigs from WCROC were taken to the Stevens County fairgrounds for the live animal portion of the training. Both of those CSSC workshops were taught by veterinarians who practice in that geographic area.
Schieck Boelke collaborated with two commercial MN pig farms to train their employees as CSSCs and utilized the farms’ veterinarians as trainers. Two feed companies hosted CSSC workshops for their swine clientele; one was taught by the company’s own swine veterinarian and held at a local fairground and the other was hosted in a producer’s farm machinery shop, well away from the actual pig barns of the operation, taught by Dr. Culhane from the UMN College of Veterinary Medicine.
At the beginning of 2024, Minnesota had 34 Certified Swine Sample Collectors. A total of 64 folks were certified through Extension’s CSSC training workshops. Most participants were from Minnesota with a handful of them from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota, but all had a connection to farms in Minnesota. Attendees had a combined influence on more than 59 million pigs.
Aside from the importance of having more “boots on the ground” to properly collect and submit swine samples in disease outbreak events, the project demonstrated further important elements.
Diane DeWitte is an Extension Educator based in the Mankato area. She can be reached at stouf002@umn.edu
Originally printed in The LAND - as March 14, 2025 Swine & U column
Much of UMN Extension’s swine work involves disease preparedness. Not only are foreign animal diseases (FAD) a threat, but the endemic seasonal diseases faced by pig farmers every day require mitigation efforts.
The three FADs that swine producers prepare to NOT get are African Swine Fever (ASF), Classical Swine Fever (CSF), formerly known as hog cholera and eradicated in the US in 1978, and Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD), which was also eradicated in the US in 1929. FMD can also infect cattle, sheep, goats, deer and more.
Typical prevention education includes assisting producers in creating an enhanced biosecurity plan through the Secure Pork Supply (SPS) process. Nationally, SPS provides a common template of farm map creation, identification of a biosecurity lead person on the farm, enhanced plans for feed and other deliveries, mortality disposal, employee entrance & exit, manure hauling and movement on and off the farm. Producers taking time to think through and create their specific plan and review it with their veterinarian annually helps keep biosecurity preparation on the front burner.
Each state handles its SPS individually, collaborating with the Board of Animal Health, the Department of Agriculture and herd veterinarians ensures that farms keep their SPS plan updated. In Minnesota, our SPS coordinator is David Weinand. Weinand serves as the Secure Food Supply contact for all species, and he’s the person we work with when addressing secure pork. He can be reached at david.weinand@state.mn.us. Folks with questions about an SPS plan for their farm can get information at www.securepork.org.
An additional element of strategic disease outbreak preparedness is the US Swine Health Improvement Plan (US-SHIP). This USDA Veterinary Services initiative is a biosecurity, traceability and disease surveillance platform which was developed to be a national strategy for disease preparedness. US-SHIP’s principal objectives are to develop and implement ASF and CSF Monitored Certification of US pig farm sites and slaughter facilities. Each state recruits and encourages participation in US-SHIP to demonstrate freedom from the diseases and support ongoing pork industry commerce outside of any specific disease outbreak area. Producers can learn more about US-SHIP at https://usswinehealthimprovementplan.com/, or here in Minnesota through the Board of Animal Health at https://z.umn.edu/MNUSSHIP.
CERTIFIED SWINE SAMPLE COLLECTORS
Another important element of disease outbreak preparedness is having a team of trained swine sample collectors who would be able to help veterinarians collect samples for laboratory analysis.Training has been formalized through the USDA and the trained personnel are known as Certified Swine Sample Collectors (CSSC). CSSC is a portion of the Secure Pork Supply program. It is taught by Category II accredited veterinarians, i.e., veterinarians authorized to work with a wide range of animals, including all food & fiber livestock and more. The training includes a classroom portion of USDA developed curriculum taught by a veterinarian and wrapped up with an exam requiring an 80% passing score.
The second portion of the CSSC training requires participants to demonstrate proficiency in live animal fluid sample collection; class members must collect blood, nasal and oral fluid samples. Following live animal sample collection, CSSC trainees then demonstrate that they can collect postmortem samples: tonsils, spleen, and specific lymph nodes. In addition to collecting the samples, they must demonstrate their ability to correctly package the samples and ship appropriately to the lab.
COLLABORATION TO TRAIN MORE CSSC
Minnesota’s Secure Pork Supply coordinator, David Weinand, oversees the number of trained CSSCs in Minnesota, and in late 2023 it was apparent that, to successfully assist veterinarians in a disease outbreak, the number needed expanding. UMN Extension Swine Educator, Sarah Schieck Boelke and Weinand worked together with the UMN College of Veterinary Medicine swine faculty, Dr. Marie Culhane and Dr. Cesar Corzo, to develop a grant proposal to offer CSSC workshops across Minnesota.The National Pork Board had set aside pork check-off dollars for several Swine Education and Outreach Professional Grants, developed specifically for swine educators across the country to provide programming in critical areas of swine education.
Schieck Boelke and the group proposed a series of CSSC training workshops across Minnesota in 2024 to boost the number of available CSSCs who would be ready to collect samples. UMN Animal Science professor Lee Johnston and Extension Educators Sabrina Florentino and Diane DeWitte were added as collaborators on the project. The proposal covered the logistics of providing training for pig producers: Schieck Boelke submitted a plan to secure Category II veterinarians to teach the class, supply classroom materials for the class, find locations for the training, make sample collection kits for each participant, purchase pigs for the workshop’s live animal activities, manage logistics and paperwork, and provide lunch!
In March 2024 the group learned that the National Pork Board agreed to fund the project, and the activities were set in motion. Due to the need for one-on-one interaction between participants and veterinarians, the workshops were limited to 12 participants. The project targeted all levels of pig production and kicked off during the Minnesota State Fair with a CSSC training for show pig producers held at the swine production facilities on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus. The next workshop was hosted at the UMN West Central Research & Outreach Center (WCROC) at Morris, MN. For biosecurity reasons, the pigs from WCROC were taken to the Stevens County fairgrounds for the live animal portion of the training. Both of those CSSC workshops were taught by veterinarians who practice in that geographic area.
Schieck Boelke collaborated with two commercial MN pig farms to train their employees as CSSCs and utilized the farms’ veterinarians as trainers. Two feed companies hosted CSSC workshops for their swine clientele; one was taught by the company’s own swine veterinarian and held at a local fairground and the other was hosted in a producer’s farm machinery shop, well away from the actual pig barns of the operation, taught by Dr. Culhane from the UMN College of Veterinary Medicine.
At the beginning of 2024, Minnesota had 34 Certified Swine Sample Collectors. A total of 64 folks were certified through Extension’s CSSC training workshops. Most participants were from Minnesota with a handful of them from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota, but all had a connection to farms in Minnesota. Attendees had a combined influence on more than 59 million pigs.
Aside from the importance of having more “boots on the ground” to properly collect and submit swine samples in disease outbreak events, the project demonstrated further important elements.
- Pork check-off funds were leveraged to bolster Minnesota’s team of CSSC; individuals in the pig industry came away from the workshops with valuable skills in disease identification and sampling.
- Minnesota’s Department of Agriculture and Board of Animal Health collaborated with UMN’s swine veterinarians, animal science faculty and Extension educators to enhance pig farmers’ abilities to recognize and respond to disease outbreaks.
- MN veterinarians now have a larger skilled team of sample collectors to assist them in the event of a disease outbreak.
- Extension provided education to producers, assisted veterinarians in organizing the workshops, and handled the logistical details of materials, supplies and meals.
Diane DeWitte is an Extension Educator based in the Mankato area. She can be reached at stouf002@umn.edu
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