The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has led extensive prevention and preparedness activities to manage African Swine Fever (ASF). A number of mitigation measures are currently in place however, a residual risk was identified from pathways with a high level of uncertainty, such as travelers inadvertently and illegally carrying pork products into Canada.
In 2017, a paper was published (Jurado et al, 2017) describing a model attempting to estimate the likelihood of entry of ASF and Classical Swine Fever (CSF) into the United States via air travellers. This model is required to support risk assessments both during times of preparedness as well during emergencies where a new country has been found to be infected with ASF so that adequate measures to mitigate this pathway can be implemented.
Importantly, this model relies on data on international traveller routes (from origin to end point) that is accessible through BlueDot and while the CFIA has started the development of the model, it is now in need of technical support to finalize its development and implementation.
