A Qualitative Risk Assessment of Kenya for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) for Purposes of Exportation of Cooked Pork Frankfurters to USA

Abstract

Kenya like other developing countries requires foreign exchange to meet the many challenges facing it and relies heavily on agriculture for this. The pig population in Kenya constitutes 5% of livestock contributing less than 1.0% Agricultural domestic product. The pig industry provides employment and supplies pork and pork products to the tourist sector, exports to other African countries, Middle East- Bahrain & South Arabia. Export to the world markets is encouraged and to this end, Farmer\'s Choice a private company produces and processes pork and its products for both domestic and export markets. Therefore, in order to comply with the World Trade Organization [WTO] Sanitary Phytosanitary [SPS] regulations, this Risk Analysis was conducted in response in order to assure USDA-APHIS and FSIS that export of smoked and cooked pork frankfurters from Kenya will not introduce Foot and Mouth Disease [FMD] to USA. The risk factors considered were: Authority, structure/Organization and infrastructure of Kenya's Veterinary Services; Policy, Law and Infrastructure of Disease Control; Disease outbreak history and prevalence status; Diagnostic Laboratory capabilities; Active disease control Programmes; Surveillance: Type and extent; Vaccination Status. Livestock Demographics and Marketing practices; Disease outbreak history and Prevalence in adjacent regions; Control of the movement of animals from regions of high risk. A critical analysis of all the risk factors determined that, the likelihood of infected meat from a pig carcass being exported to the United States was minimal. Further, it is prudent to conclude that, pork frankfurters processed through the Farmers Choice farms and facilities and exported to the United States pose minimal risk.

The Kenya Veterinarian Vol. 29 2005: pp. 107-113