(NAFB) – The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is issuing a federal order suspending the movement of all pork and pork products from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico into the U.S. Shipments of live swine, swine germplasm, swine products, and swine byproducts are halted until APHIS can establish sufficient mitigations to authorize such movement.

The federal order is the final action in a series of safeguards needed to establish an African Swine Fever protection zone in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. When the zone is established, APHIS will have processes in place in both countries to prohibit the movement of live swine and products out of the protection zone, conduct appropriate surveillance within the protection zone to quickly detect any introduction of the disease, and conduct a public education campaign relating to biosecurity on farms and other establishments.

APHIS will soon detail the actions taken to create the protection zone in a report to the World Organization for Animal Health. Once the report is submitted, APHIS will work to confirm that individual countries recognize and accept the zones, which will help ensure the continued flow of U.S. pork and live swine exports.