Question 1

What is AgView?

Accepted Answer

AgView, a software-based technology solution, provides near real-time health and movement status to help the U.S. pork industry to rapidly conduct contact-tracing to contain or regionalize a foreign animal disease outbreak such as African swine fever. Likewise, it can help facilitate pig movement among its users during such outbreaks to help achieve business continuity. AgView is a path to protection for America’s pig farms that will help cut through the chaos in the event of a crisis.

Question 2

How does AgView help with an outbreak of a foreign animal disease, like African swine Fever?

Accepted Answer

In the event of an FAD outbreak, AgView can provide real-time data from producers to state veterinarians and others (if allowed by the producer) to help the industry with a faster, more effective response aimed at disease containment, regionalization and business continuity.

In the event of an ASF outbreak, state veterinarians need to know and communicate a lot of important data that can be requested in a standardized format from the AgView app, including:

Where the pigs are located, size and types of farms 
Magnitude of animal movements and more importantly, positive traces
Lab results from ASF testing (pre- and post-outbreak)
Compliance with Secure Pork Supply plans
Verification of criteria needed for permitting movement

Question 3

Is my data safe with AgView? Does National Pork Board get it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your data is safe with AgView. Data is secured and stored using up-to-date industry security practices and standards. The National Pork Board does not have any access to producer data at any time.

Question 4

How damaging would a foreign animal disease outbreak be to the U.S. pork industry?

Accepted Answer

An outbreak of a foreign animal disease, like ASF, would be devastating for the pork industry. Impact would be catastrophic for the entire supply chain — from grain farmers and pig farmers, to packers and processors. Recovery would not be quick.

According to a 2023 study completed by economists at Iowa State University, the economic impact of a hypothetical African swine fever (ASF) outbreak could:

Amount to $79.5 billion in cumulative impact over 10 years, or $7.5 billion per year
Lead to the loss of 60,000 jobs in the U.S.
Pork prices could fall 50% to 60%

(Carriquiry, M., A. Elobeid, and D.J. Hayes. 2023. “National Impacts of a Domestic Outbreak of 
Foot and Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever in the United States.” Working paper 23-WP 
650. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University.)

Question 5

Besides helping during a foreign animal disease event, how useful is AgView?

Accepted Answer

AgView is a contact-tracing and data standardization software platform designed to mitigate the negative effects of a foreign animal disease. It also has everyday utility. Veterinarians can request to become an Account Management Partner whereby their clients (producers) can agree to share traceback-related data that can help a herd veterinarian make faster, better decisions when common herd health issues arise.

AgView can help state health officials contain an FAD faster and prove where an FAD is or isn’t in the U.S., allowing the pork industry access to export markets sooner. On the farm level, pork producers who have real-time data in the AgView system will make FAD investigations quicker and easier for state health officials to carry out contact tracing when investigating sites. By providing data that is accurate, real-time and standardized in AgView, state health officials may be able to investigate a possible FAD faster, allowing a pork producer to move pigs more quickly.

Question 6

Who can use AgView?

Accepted Answer

Fully funded by the Pork Checkoff, AgView can be used by all pork producers and state veterinarians in the United States. AgView is designed to help the pork industry be more prepared for a foreign animal disease. Adoption by producers and state veterinarians is crucial to the industry’s success.

All U.S. pork producers will benefit from using AgView. AgView works regardless of farm size, how many pigs the farm has, the type of pig raised or business goals of the producer.

Question 7

What information do I need to provide to create an AgView account?

Accepted Answer

Most producers have premises identification numbers (PINs) and robust movement records that can facilitate rapid contact tracing should an FAD outbreak occur in the U.S. In the event of an FAD outbreak, information producers maintain in AgView (which may be easily imported from many popular record-keeping systems) will help state veterinarians quickly react in the event of an FAD. AgView input options include:

Site information (PINs, type of farm, number of pigs)
Animal movements, both in-state and out-of-state
Lab results from participating labs

Question 8

Do I have to manually enter my farm data into AgView?

Accepted Answer

There are multiple ways to enter data into AgView via desktop or mobile app. It can be as easy as using an Excel spreadsheet or as simple as connecting your production software with an application program interface (API) with AgView (see partner list on 
agview.com). No double entry, no separate process.

Question 9

Why is it important to keep pig movement current in AgView?

Accepted Answer

In the event of an FAD outbreak, animal health officials will need your latest on-farm data such as most recent animal movements. If the data is out of date, valuable time will be lost in getting your business back to its normal operations.

Question 10

Is AgView compatible with other software?

Accepted Answer

Yes. AgView has the ability to integrate with other software platforms commonly used in the pork industry. Currently, AgView has multiple partners and is seeking more (see list on agview.com).

Question 11

Who owns AgView and how is it funded?

Accepted Answer

AgView is supported by the National Pork Board and funded by the Pork Checkoff.

Question 12

Will AgView continue to add new features?

Accepted Answer

Since its launch, AgView has added several new features and all decisions as to its maintenance and adding of new features will come from The National Pork Board.

Question 13

Is the information in AgView subject to FOIA requests?

Accepted Answer

The information is held by a secure third party, not National Pork Board. It is treated as business confidential 
information.

Frequently Asked Questions