Frequently Asked Questions

July 25, 2000

1. What is the National Trichinae Certification Program? The National Trichinae Certification Program is a pre-harvest pork safety program that will provide documentation of swine management practices which minimize risk of exposure of swine to the zoonotic (animal to human transmission) parasite Trichinella spiralis. The program establishes a set of criteria that enable producers to market swine which are not considered a risk to human health due to exposure to this parasite.

2. Who was involved in researching and developing the program? This program has been developed as a cooperative effort among several USDA agencies (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service [APHIS], Agricultural Research Service [ARS], Cooperative States Research, Education and Extension Service [CSREES], Food Safety and Inspection Service [FSIS]) the National Pork Producers Council [NPPC], and the pork processing industry. The concept of risk management for control of Trichinella in the domestic swine population is endorsed by the U. S. Animal Health Association, the National Institute for Animal Agriculture and the American Association of Swine Practitioners. It is also recognized by the International Commission on Trichinellosis in their Recommended Methods for Control of Trichinella in swine. This Program is seen as model for future on-farm animal agriculture food safety programs.

3. Is trichinae a problem in pigs raised in the United States? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that cases of human trichinellosis have declined to below 25 annually over the past several years. Only a few of these cases have been traced and associated with consumption of pork. A USDA, National Animal Health Monitoring System national swine survey conducted in 1995 reported the infection rate in United States swine to be 0.013%. Modern swine management systems have virtually eliminated trichinae as a problem in domestic pigs.

4. Why consider trichinosis as the primary pathogen for an on-farm certification program? Despite what we know about the decline of trichinae in pigs, it remains an issue of public perception. In 1994, the question most often asked by consumers to the USDA Meat and Poultry Inspection’s (FSIS’) Hotline was related to safety concerns about trichinae in pork. The USDA Pathogen Reduction/HACCP Systems have been implemented in meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants. Meat processors will likely require more information about on-farm food animal production practices to ensure these practices are in synchrony with what the plant sees as food quality assurance demands by their customers. Furthermore, many international trading partners require pork produced in the United States to either originate from a carcass testing negative for trichinae or to be processed by freezing, curing or cooking to ensure that any trichinae, if present, are inactivated. An on-farm certification program will assure that all trichinae infection risks are eliminated from the production environment and swine are never exposed to the parasite.

5. How are pigs exposed to trichinae? Trichinella spiralis is a parasite of mammals. It is a small-sized nematode (worm) that produces larvae that migrate to and encyst in striated muscle tissue. Transmission of this parasite requires consumption of the muscle containing encysted larve by another meat eating or scavenging mammal. The encysted larva develops into an adult and repeats the life cycle as described. Trichinae is more likely to be found in any mammal that eat the meat of another animal infected with trichinae. Meat eating wildlife, rats, and swine exposed to and consuming wildlife, rats or raw meat are at risk of becoming infected with trichinae.

6. How do you prevent pigs from becoming infected with trichinae? Producers can prevent swine from becoming infected with trichinae by preventing the consumption of trichinae

infected meat by swine. Swine typically become infected with trichinae by consuming undercooked food waste containing meat, ingestion of wildlife carcasses or rat carcasses, and cannibalism of trichinae infected swine carcasses. Care must also be taken to maintain a clean, hygienic production environment that does not attract wildlife or rodents.

7. What is the objective of the National Trichinae Certification Program? The objective of this voluntary program is to provide information about trichinae to the producer. Directions provide methods on raising swine to prevent exposure to these trichinae risk factors. These methods are termed Good Production Practices. Pork produced under Good Production Practices that eliminate swine exposure to the parasite will be recognized as trichinae-safe.

8. What steps are required to establish a Trichinae Certified Status for a herd? The National Trichinae Certification Program is guided by a set of Program Standards. These standards detail the procedures for meeting, establishing and maintaining the requirements necessary to be recognized as Trichinae Certified. These standards are organized into eight parts: definitions, program responsibilities and requirements, administrative procedures, Qualified Accredited Veterinarian training, certification documentation and benefits, flow of events for certification, appendices, and references. To obtain a copy of these standards call or write an APHIS area office or access the trichinae website at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/trichinae/

9. What are the terms and definitions necessary to understand this program? The following list of definitions have been selected to represent the terminology used for this program in a concise manner. A complete set of definitions pertaining to this program are contained in the Program Standards.

Audit - An inspection process which generates a written record documenting a production sites compliance with Good Production Practices.

Auditor - A Qualified Accredited Veterinarian or a Qualified state or federal Veterinary Medical Officer.

10. What is the role of the producer in the program? The producer should obtain a preaudit package that contains all the information needed to understand the steps of the program and actions necessary to prepare for an audit. A preaudit package may be obtained from the following sources: Qualified Accredited Veterinarians (QAV), state or federal animal health offices, the National Pork Producers Council, or by writing to:

A preaudit package may also be requested electronically through the program’s web site:

You and your QAV should complete the sample audit included in the preaudit package to be assured these standards have been met.

Once assured these Standards have been met, have the QAV perform a site audit. Both the owner and auditor should sign the audit form and mail it to the APHIS Area Office for review. The application fee that is required to accompany this audit form has been waived for producers participating in this Pilot. If the audit is approved, the appropriate status for the site will be issued and documentation will be mailed to the producer. The producer is expected to maintain these standards and good production practices between audits.

11. What are the key elements for trichinae certification? The key elements are listed below. These elements will be observed by the QAV during the audit. The purpose of an audit is to document implementation of the following Good Production Practices which eliminate the possibility for swine to become trichinae infected. The Good Production Practices ensure that:

1. All non-breeding swine entering the site either originate from a Certified Production Site or are less than 5 weeks old. The source herd T.I.N. must be documented in an animal movement record.
2. Sources of feed or feed ingredients meet Good Manufacturing Practices or quality assurance standards recognized by the feed industry. A letter from the source(s) of feed shall be maintained on file and available for review by the auditor.
3. Feed prepared on the site must be prepared, stored, and delivered in a manner such that the feed has not been contaminated with rodent and wildlife carcasses.
4. Exclusion and control of rodents and wildlife is to a level such that fresh signs of activity of these animals are not observed in the swine production or feed preparation and storage areas. The producer maintains a rodent control logbook with site diagram, or records of a Pest Control Operator, which are updated on at least a monthly basis. These records shall be maintained on file and available for review by the auditor.
5. Wildlife carcasses are not intentionally fed to swine. Swine shall not have access to wildlife harborage or carcasses on the site.
6. Swine are not fed improperly cooked or improperly prepared waste food containing meat.

• Feeding of waste food to swine requires state licensing and cooking time and temperature consistent with state and federal regulations. Storage of waste products to be fed must avoid contamination of cooked material with uncooked material. Records logging cooking times and temperatures shall be maintained on file and available for review by the auditor.
• Uncooked household waste shall not be fed to swine.

7. Dead animal disposal methods shall accomplish prompt removal of swine carcasses from pens preventing cannibalism. Dead animals shall also be promptly removed from the site to prevent attraction of rodents and wildlife. An Animal Disposal Plan describing these procedures shall be maintained on file and available for review by an auditor.
8. General hygiene of the facility should be such that rodents and wildlife are not attracted.

• Solid waste (facility refuse) shall be contained and regularly removed from the site preventing rodent and wildlife access and attraction.
• Spilled feed shall be regularly removed.

9. Departures from the site shall be documented on an Animal Movement Record and take place in a manner that ensures the identity of these swine can be traced to their origin, the Certified Production Site. Animal movement records shall be maintained on file and available for review by the auditor.

12. What steps are necessary to attain and maintain Certification? Sites will be audited several times to document the standards have been implemented initially and to ensure that swine have been raised under these standards during the period they have been located at the site. Three stages were established to document the verification of this certification process.

The date of program entry will be determined from the date the first audit leading to Stage I status was completed. All subsequent program dates will be based on this initial date at 6, 9, or 15 month intervals as appropriate. If a site is decertified and must be granted stage I status a new anniversary date will be established.

Stage I, enrolled - Sites which have the initial audit approved by APHIS will be granted Stage I status. Stage I status indicates that the site has met all requirements of trichinae Good Production Practices and the site is officially "Enrolled" in the trichinae program. During Stage I, swine may not be sold as trichinae certified.

Stage II, certified - Sites with Stage I status may request an audit for Stage II status no sooner than 5 months and must submit a completed audit form by no later than 7 months after attaining Stage I status. Audits reviewed and approved by APHIS will be issued Stage II status. Swine originating from Stage II sites may be sold as trichinae certified product.

Stage III, certified - Sites holding Stage II status may request an audit for Stage III status no sooner than 8 months and must submit a completed audit form by no later than 10 months following the date of Stage II status. Audits reviewed and approved by APHIS will be issued Stage III status. Swine originating from Stage III sites may be sold as trichinae certified product.

In order to maintain a Stage III, certified status, the owner of the site must request a renewal audit no sooner than 14 months and must submit a completed audit form by no later than 16 months following the most recent date of certification. Audits reviewed and approved by APHIS will be issued a continuation of Stage III, certified status. Certified site will be decertified if audits are not completed and the forms not received by APHIS within the time period stated.

13. Is certification transferable if either ownership or management of the pigs or ownership of the site changes? If either the ownership of the Certified Production Site or the ownership and management of swine located at the Certified Production Site changes, the site must be audited within 60-days of this change to maintain the current Certification and Stage status. Sites not meeting change-of-ownership audit requirements within 60-days will be decertified. Decertified sites will be required to repeat the 3-stage certification process described above beginning with Stage I.

14. What is the role of government in this program? The USDA will be endorsing this program on behalf of the U.S. Swine Industry and be involved with the following:

1. One of several sources distributing information about the program.
2. Train USDA accredited veterinarians to become Qualified to conduct audits.
3. Maintain a current list of Certified Production Sites and Qualified Accredited Veterinarians.
4. Review audit results submitted by an auditor and issue status if standards have been met and approved.
5. Detail a Qualified Veterinary Medical Officer to conduct random spot audits to ensure the integrity of the on-farm auditing process.
6. Provide a Qualified Veterinary Medical Officer for a user fee to a producer to conduct audits if a Qualified Accredited Veterinarian is not available.

15. What is a Spot Audit? Spot audits will be conducted to ensure the integrity of the auditing process. Certified Production Sites will be randomly audited by a QVMO. The QVMO will conduct an audit and document the findings on an official audit form at no charge to the producer. The completed audit form will be submitted to APHIS. If approved, APHIS will grant continuation of the Certified status. Spot audits will also be conducted by a QVMO due to detection of a positive test result during validation of the certification program by testing slaughter swine as described in the Program Standards.

16. How will swine originating from a Certified Production Site be identified and maintained separate from other swine in order to maintain their Certified Swine status? All Stage II and Stage III, certified swine sold to other producers, to buying stations, or to slaughter facilities must be identified or segregated in such a way that they can be identified to a Certified Production Site. Failure to appropriately identify or segregate swine during transport or sales process will result in loss of program status and certification of the swine.

17. How will packing plants verify swine originate from Certified Production Sites? It is the responsibility of the slaughter facility receiving swine originating from Certified Production Sites to verify that certification is current. This is done by: 1) verifying the producer certification status by accessing the APHIS trichinae certification web site at (www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/trichinae), 2) calling the APHIS Area Office to inquire, or 3) maintaining documentation of certification on file. For swine originating from a Stage II or Stage III certified site to be sold into commerce as certified pork, the packer/collection point must have in place a procedure by which either swine from certified sites or edible pork products from certified swine, are segregated from swine or edible pork products originating from non-certified sites.

18. Will there be other testing to ensure the on-farm certification program is effective? Yes, slaughter facilities processing swine from Stage II or Stage III trichinae certified sites are responsible for conducting testing to determine Trichinella spiralis infection status of incoming certified swine as required by USDA, FSIS. Process verification testing will be performed on blood or muscle samples obtained during slaughter and assayed by accepted tissue or blood-based postmortem tests. Testing will be the responsibility of plant personnel using USDA approved methodologies under the oversight of the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Testing may be conducted on site using an official test; or, as an alternative, blood, serum or tissue samples can be collected at slaughter and tested by a USDA approved laboratory. Any test used must be an official test.

19. What happens if testing conducted at the packing plant detects a trichinae positive sample? Detection of a positive testing sample will result in a tracing back to the site of origin and the following:

1. If a sample is found positive by digestion methods, the production site of origin is decertified and removed from the program.
2. If a serologic positive sample is confirmed positive by digestion methods, the production site of origin is decertified and removed from the program.
3. If a serologic positive sample can not be confirmed by digestion testing, the production site of origin must be investigated by APHIS personnel and additional testing of animals conducted. An assessment of trichinae risk will be determined based on these investigations. During the investigation period, site certification is suspended. APHIS will determine the status of the site within 30 days of the suspension pending the results of the investigation. A finding of risk, based on factors addressed in the trichinae audit or finding of additional positive animals by either serologic or digestion testing will result in de-certification.

20. What are the record keeping requirements for packing plants, producers, and APHIS? All packers receiving swine from certified production sites must maintain the records for numbers of certified swine processed, source of swine, Trichinae Identification Number of swine tested and test results.

All producers seeking to obtain a certification or maintaining a Certified Production Site are required to maintain the following records if applicable: Feed Production Log, Feed Manufacturer’s Quality Assurance Verification, Rodent Control Log or Pest Management Professional’s Log, Disposal Plan, Animal Movement Record, and Waste Feeding Log. APHIS will maintain a list of Certified Production Sites, a list of Qualified Accredited Veterinarians, results of in-plant testing of slaughter swine, and audit events.