Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL (CP Foods) expressed confidence that its biosecurity measures will be able to keep African Swine Fever (ASF) out of its farms.

The company has prepared emergency plan and outlined biosecurity measures at feed mills. It is also spearheading a training program to help small scale pig farms to adopt biosecurity measures, enabling the pig raisers to prevent the spread of possible ASF in Thailand.

Dr Damnoen Chaturavittawong, DVM, CP Foods Senior Vice President, said CP Foods is working hard to make sure that all of its farms and contract farms are operated in compliance with highest biosecurity standards.

“CP Foods has tighten biosecurity at farms to minimize the risk of exposure to diseases. For example, all pigs are raised in closed system farms and fed with animal feeds from trusted sources. Vehicles and people that visit the pig farms must be cleaned with disinfected spray before entry.” He said. “We also transferred our knowledge on farms’ biosecurity to all of our contract farmers nationwide. This is to ensure that our consumers will receive high quality and safe foods.”

In order to help CP Foods’ staffs to handle the possible outbreak effectively, Dr Damnoen added that the company has set up emergency preparedness exercises by simulating ASF outbreak at farms in high risk areas.

Under the farm biosecurity practices, CP Foods has outlined 9 protocols for serious inspection at feed mill, including (1) Feed ingredients are sourced from ASF-free areas (2) and transported to feed mill by vehicles, which are cleaned in and out thoroughly by disinfectant spray. Drivers must not come into direct contact with ingredients. (3) Feed ingredients are stored in a hygienic storage, separated from production sites and ready-to-eat meals. (4) All workers and equipment in ingredient storage areas must be washed and sprayed.

(5) Feed products are delivered to customers in a separate area from the feed storage. The delivery point must be cleaned regularly (6) Trucks used in feed transportation must be disinfected before enter the pickup point. Feed delivery trucks from risk areas are separated from the others.

(7) The company also applied strict hygiene standards for visitor and employee at feed mills. All people who visit the feed mill must be clean with disinfected. Foods are prohibited from entering the feed mill area. (8) The company’s feed mills also carry out regular pest control and (9) disinfection equipment checkup.

CP Foods are working with Department of Livestock Development, Provincial Livestock Office, the Swine Raisers Association of Thailand and other parties to share its expertise in ASF and disease control to local farmers, covering risk areas for more than 40 provinces.

Currently, CP Foods is among four certified pork exporters, supplied chilled half swine carcasses to Hong Kong’s consumers as a result of pork shortage caused by ASF in China.