Mitigating Pork Parasites
Parasites can present serious health risks in commercial food supplies. Without proper mitigation efforts, parasitic infection can run rampant in livestock populations and cause major trouble for farmers. That scenario was often the reality for pig farmers before development of the U.S. Pork Quality Assurance Plus (PQA+) program, an education and certification program to improve production practices in the commercial pork industry.
ARS researchers pioneered many of the program’s mitigation techniques. Together with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, ARS conducted a survey of pigs raised under the PQA+ program to determine if it was effective in mitigating exposure to the Trichinella parasite.