APC Inc. and other members of the North American Spray Dried Blood & Plasma Producers (NASDBPP) and the European Animal Protein Assn. (EAPA) have prepared a statement concerning the biosafety of blood products in light of recent outbreaks of African swine fever.

In addition, APC has made available a video outlining the biosafety steps involved in manufacturing its blood-derived products for use in animal feeds. The "Biosafety of Spray Dried Blood & Plasma Products" video may be viewed on the APC YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/lYl4SxkAKK4.

In their statement, NASDBPP and EAPA outlined the biosafety steps involved in manufacturing safe and effective feed ingredients derived from animal blood.

They explained that spray-dried porcine plasma is used globally in feed to enhance weaned pig performance and can be used to significantly reduce mortality and medical treatments of nursery and growing/finishing pigs.

Heat treatment at 80°C throughout the substance of meat and dairy proteins is acknowledged to inactivate many viruses, including foot and mouth disease, classical swine fever, swine vesicular disease, African swine fever, avian influenza, Newcastle disease, rinderpest and sheep and goat plague, the NASDBPP/EAPA statement said.

Additionally, the statement pointed out that members of NASDBPP and EAPA manufacture spray-dried blood products with several independent features that contribute to the safety of blood products, including:

1. Blood is collected only from healthy animals that will be slaughtered for human consumption.

2. Collected blood is pooled from multiple animals, which contributes to a dilution effect. Pooling is a recognized biosafety feature for human plasma products used for transfusions.

3. The spray-drying process at high temperatures (80ºC throughout its substance) has been shown to be, and is accepted as, effective in inactivating heat-resistant viruses, including non-enveloped or enveloped viruses.

According to the NASDBPP/EAPA statement, the scientific evidence indicates that spray-dried porcine blood products are safe and that the spray-drying process effectively inactivates tested swine viruses, including African swine fever.