DES MOINES, Iowa – World Pork Expo organizers had been looking forward to a show this year that wouldn’t be plagued by a disease panic after H1N1 disrupted last year’s event.Then a few weeks ago, foot-and-mouth disease broke out in Japan and South Korea, forcing organizers to once again hurriedly investigate biosecurity protocols and examine the nature of foreign disease controls. “There’s always something,” said John Wrigley, general manager of the expo, which officially begins tomorrow.”It never fails, there’s always something,” he said.However, Wrigley wore an easy smile as he talked during an interview this afternoon in the show office on the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Hog disease outbreaks are no longer shocking and unimaginable events to this longtime planner of the international show. He now takes them for granted.So far, Asia’s foot-and-mouth outbreak does not appear to have affected the event the way H1N1 did last year or foot-and-mouth did in 2001, when the show was cancelled to avoid inadvertently spreading the disease by bringing together hog producers from possibly infected areas.The show went forward last year, even though H1N1 had broken out in Mexico just weeks before the event. However, attendance fell because most foreign visitors stayed away or couldn’t get visas because of tightened phytosanitary standards. The expo cancelled its tours and became a much less international show.This year, Asia’s foot-and-mouth outbreak has caused little disruption. Japan and Korea have tough quarantine regulations controlling outbreaks, so show organizers and U.S. government veterinary officials feel confident Japanese and Korean visitors will not spread the disease to North America.Many Asians have come to the show and the tours went forward as planned.Wrigley said show planners now know how to cope with disease concerns, so he’s glad the National Pork Producers Council decided the show must go on.That’s a good attitude, he added, because international shows regularly have to grapple with sudden disease concerns.”Next year it will be something else,” he said.
Disease once again a concern as World Pork Expo prepares to open
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