Pork Congress prepares for tighter security

Plans are shaping up for this year’s Pork Congress, to be held once again at the state fairgrounds in Des Moines. Expo director John Wrigley says the event’s rebounded from the foot-and-mouth disease scare that closed it down two years ago.Wrigley says security will be tighter than ever at the Expo, including a check-in for animals that will make your last trip through airport security look like a cakewalk. Their papers have to be checked before the animal can be unloaded and the staff veterinarian must give approval — and at the hog barn doors there will be a foot-bath and a hand-wash. People will be encouraged to stay away from the animals — to look but not touch. Wrigley says security is being ramped up at sale barns and public livestock events everywhere as farmers become more aware of how herd disease spreads, and this is just another example. He says that kind of “good sound practice” is common sense and what producers do at county fairs, the state fair and hog sales they’ll be doing at the expo and perhaps a bit more. And everyone except the animals can take part in the second annual “Hog Jog,” a run/walk fundraiser for the Iowa Farm Bureau Foundation. Saturday morning they hold a five-k and ten-K run and afterward 150 Harley-Davidson cycles will parade down Grand Avenue on the fairgrounds and park in front of the grandstand. The Expo this year will be June 5th through the7th.