The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service has been working to develop a voluntary national certification program for trichinae-free pork. The final element, a 2-year pilot study, began this summer.
In cooperation with the National Pork Producers Council, the meat packing industry, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and the Food Safety and Inspection Service, Dr. H. Ray Gamble, of USDA's Agricultural Research Service, developed an ELISA test that enables veterinarians to screen live animals for the infection from a blood sample. Gamble has been testing the procedure on herds for two years.
Now, the National Pork Producers Council is urging producers to have their animals certified by an APHIS-accredited veterinarian. Using a standardized checklist, the veterinarians will document management practices that protect animals from infection. Production sites that meet the criteria will be certified as having safe management practices. At the packing plant, certified animals will be separated from non-certified pigs for further tracking and testing to be sure they really are trichinae-free.
Even though the number of pigs infected with the trichinae parasite has declined steadily for decades, several overseas markets have closed their borders for U.S. pork producers. A certification program that begins on the farm may hold promise for re-opened markets.
To read more about ARS' research, see the entire article in the August issue of Agricultural Research.
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