The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is updating the Swine Hemorrhagic Fevers: African and Classical Swine Fevers Integrated Surveillance Plan to reflect recent enhancements in the program. APHIS developed the initial surveillance plan in 2019 to further its overall African swine fever (ASF) preparedness efforts. These updates reflect additional measures put in place over the last year, particularly in light of the detection of ASF in the western hemisphere which has not been present since the 1980s.

In 2021, ASF was detected in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Because of these countries’ proximity to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, APHIS promptly increased existing mitigations and initiated several new proactive prevention efforts there. These efforts included enhanced surveillance in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and additional surveillance activities in feral swine.

APHIS is now updating the surveillance plan to include these additional efforts. The plan also includes updated case definitions, adds whole blood as an approved sample type, and clarifies information about data sources. These changes are already in effect and the updated plan will serve as a reference document. The updated plan may be viewed online.