Quantification of soya‐based feed ingredient entry from ASFV‐positive countries to the United States by ocean freight shipping and associated seaports

Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) can survive in soya-based products for 30 days with T ½ ranging from 9.6 to 12.9 days in soya bean meals and soya oil cake. As the United States imports soya-based products from several ASFV-positive countries, knowledge of the type and quantity of these specific imports, and their ports of entry (POE), is necessary information to manage risk. Using the data from the International Trade Commission Harmonized Tariff Schedule website in conjunction with pivot tables, we analysed imports across air, land and sea POE of soya-based products from 43 ASFV-positive countries to the United States during 2018 and 2019. In 2018, 104,366 metric tons (MT) of soya-based products, specifically conventional and organic soya bean meal, soya beans, soya oil cake and soya oil were imported from these countries into the United States via seaports only. The two largest suppliers were China (52.7%, 55,034 MT) and the Ukraine (42.9%, 44,775 MT). In 2019, 73,331 MT entered the United States and 54.7% (40,143 MT) came from the Ukraine and 8.4% (6,182 MT) from China. Regarding POE, 80.9%-83.2% of soya-based imports from China entered the United States at the seaports of San Francisco, CA, and Seattle, WA, while 89.4%-100% entered from the Ukraine via the seaports of New Orleans, LA, and Charlotte, NC. Analysis of five-year trends (2015-2019) of the volume of soya imports from China indicated reduction over time (with a noticeably sharp decrease between 2018 and 2019), and seaport utilization was consistent. In contrast, volume remained high for Ukrainian soya imports, and seaport utilization was inconsistent. Overall, this exercise introduced a new approach to collect objective data on an important risk factor, providing researchers, government officials and industry stakeholders a means to objectively identify and quantify potential channels of foreign animal disease entry into the United States.

New perspectives for evaluating relative risks of African swine fever virus contamination in global feed ingredient supply chains

“…Furthermore, soybean meal imports from China declined by 99% from 2017 to 2020 (Table 5). These results contradict those reported by Patterson et al (2020), where the amounts of imported conventional and organic soybeans, soybean meal, soy oil cake and soybean oil were combined, and incorrectly used to suggest that China, Ukraine and Russia were the predominant ASFV-positive countries of origin of concern in 2018 and 2019. Our analysis using HTS import codes specific for soybean meal indicated that no soybean meal was imported into the United States from Ukraine and Russia from 2017 to 2020, and minimal soybean meal imports originated from China in 2019 and 2020.…”

“…Use of soybean meal and other soy products from these countries in swine diets represent negligible risk unless cross-contamination occurs during handling and transport. Patterson et al (2020) included 43 countries from the CFIA ASFV watch list in their analysis but reported imports for only eight of these countries. Our analysis was expanded to include 58 countries on the CFIA watch list or designated ASFV-positive countries from 2017 to 2020 for soybean meal imports.…”

“…This heightened level of concern was created based on results from studies showing ASFV survive time, temperature and humidity conditions of transoceanic shipping in soybean meal inoculated with ASFV(Dee et al, 2018;Stoian et al, 2019). In addition, the type and quantities of soy-based ingredients imported into the United States from ASFV-positive countries from 2012 to 2016(Dee et al, 2018) and from 2015 to 2019(Patterson et al, 2020), along with ports of entry, have been estimated using publicly available import data from the International Trade Commission Harmonized Tariff Schedule.5 Patterson et al (2020) reported that 104,366 and 73,331 tonnes of soy-based ingredients (conventional and organic soybean meal, soybeans, soy oil cake and soybean oil) were imported into the United States through seaports in 2018 and 2019, respectively, with China (52.7%) and Ukraine (42.9%) serving as the primary ASFV-positive countries of origin in 2018, and Ukraine (54.7%) and Russia (28.2%) as the primary ASFV-positive countries of origin in 2019. Furthermore, ASFV appears to survive longer in organic soybean meal, compared with conventional soybean meal(Dee et al, 2018;Stoian et al, 2019), but the chemical and physical factors contributing to the apparent 'protective' effects provided to the virus have not been elucidated.…”

Detection of African swine fever virus in feed dust collected from experimentally inoculated complete feed using quantitative PCR and virus titration assays

“…Contaminated feed and feed ingredients are one potential route for introduction and transmission of ASFV into new herds and regions (Niederwerder, 2021). Feed ingredients intended for use in commercial swine diets are a global commodity and significant volumes are traded between countries with opposing ASFV epidemiological situations (Patterson et al, 2020). Further, ASFV has demonstrated broad stability in a wide range of commonly imported feed ingredients exposed to transoceanic environmental conditions (Dee et al, 2018;Stoian et al, 2019) and ASFV is transmissible through the ingestion of contaminated plant-based feed (Niederwerder et al, 2019).…”

An analysis of select swine feed ingredients and pork products imported into the United States from African swine fever virus affected countries

“…previously to support and validate numerous virus survivability and feed-risk studies (Dee et al, 2020;Patterson et al, 2019Patterson et al, , 2020Stoian et al, 2020) and has potentially broad implications for future use in the effective deployment of national biosecurity and surveillance resources.…”