What Changed
The United States Department of Agriculture stopped issuing export certificates for three categories of swine commodities on May 7, 2025: raw inedible by-products, untreated blood products, and raw manure. The trigger is a confirmed pseudorabies (Aujesky's disease) outbreak in commercial U.S. hog operations. If your broker already holds a USDA export certificate dated before the suspension, CFIA will honour it at the border. Anything certified after the notice date will be refused until USDA lifts the pause.
This does not affect edible pork, processed pet food, or cooked product. If you're bringing in frozen pork loins, canned dog food with pork meal, or rendered tallow, your release workflow is unchanged.
Who This Hits
Three importer groups see immediate friction:
Rendering and feed manufacturers bringing raw swine by-products for industrial use. These shipments always required a USDA export certificate and a CFIA import permit. Without the export cert, the permit is worthless. If you have regular PO flows from U.S. rendering plants, expect your supplier to suspend shipments until USDA clears the disease status.
Pharmaceutical and biotech importers sourcing untreated swine blood or glands for enzyme extraction, heparin production, or lab reagents. Blood products in this category are subject to veterinary certificates under the Health of Animals Regulations. A missing or invalid USDA cert will trigger a CFIA hold at first inspection, and there is no workaround release option.
Agricultural operations importing raw swine manure as fertilizer or for composting trials. This is a narrow use case, but the handful of operations doing it will see hard stops at the border until the outbreak is contained.
If your HS code sits in 0511.99 (animal products not elsewhere specified), 3001.90 (glands and organs for therapeutic use), or 3102 (animal or vegetable fertilizers), and the country of origin is U.S., confirm with your supplier that the product category is still eligible for export certification.
What Pseudorabies Actually Is
Pseudorabies is a herpesvirus that infects swine. It does not infect humans and does not make pork unsafe to eat. The disease spreads through direct contact between animals, contaminated equipment, or raw biological material like blood and manure. Canada eliminated pseudorabies from domestic hog herds in the 1990s and maintains a disease-free status. CFIA will not risk reintroduction through imports of raw, untreated swine material during an active U.S. outbreak.
Edible pork is excluded from the restriction because cooking, curing, and commercial processing inactivate the virus. Pet food containing rendered or cooked pork is also clear because the manufacturing process eliminates transmission risk.
Filing and Release Implications
If you file a CAD on a shipment of raw swine by-products and the CFIA zoo-sanitary officer at the port flags it for document review, you will not be able to satisfy the permit condition without a valid USDA export certificate. The shipment will be refused entry, and you will need to arrange re-export or destruction under CFIA supervision. There is no provisional release, no conditional delivery, and no appeals process while the suspension is active.
For shipments already in transit with valid pre-suspension certificates, CFIA has confirmed those will clear. If your supplier shipped on May 6 with a certificate dated May 5, you're fine. If the certificate is dated May 8 or later, the cargo is getting turned around.
Most brokers working the livestock and animal-product side of the trade already have CFIA coordination built into their release workflow. If you're filing the CAD yourself as an in-house team, make sure your CFIA import permit number and the corresponding USDA export certificate number are both declared on the entry. Missing or mismatched document numbers will trip an automatic hold.
When This Ends
USDA has not published a timeline for resuming export certification. Pseudorabies outbreaks in commercial herds typically require depopulation, disinfection, and negative test confirmation across the affected premises and contact herds before regional disease-free status is restored. That process can take weeks or months, depending on the scope of the outbreak and the biosecurity protocols in place.
If your supplier depends on U.S. raw swine inputs and cannot wait, the alternate sourcing options are limited. Canada's domestic supply of inedible by-products and blood for industrial use is small. Europe is an option for some pharmaceutical-grade material, but the lead time and cost structure will not match what you had with U.S. suppliers.
For rendering and feed clients, the practical move is to pause POs and wait for USDA's all-clear. Trying to bring in material from another U.S. state or another supplier in the same commodity class will not bypass the suspension. The restriction applies to all U.S.-origin raw swine by-products, untreated blood, and manure, regardless of shipper or origin state.
What to Tell Your Supplier
If your U.S. supplier is not already aware of the suspension, forward them the USDA notice. Most rendering plants, blood processors, and industrial by-product exporters working the Canadian trade have been notified directly, but smaller or occasional shippers may not be on USDA's distribution list.
Confirm with your supplier whether any in-transit shipments were certified before May 7. If so, make sure your broker has a copy of the export certificate before the cargo arrives at the CFIA port of entry. If the certificate was issued on or after the suspension date, arrange with your supplier to hold the shipment in the U.S. or re-route it to another market.
For regular contract flows, ask your supplier for weekly updates on USDA's certification status. USDA will issue a follow-up notice when export certificates resume, and you want to be first in line once the gate opens again.
We track CFIA import suspensions and veterinary certificate changes as part of routine OGD coordination for food, feed, and animal-product clients. If you're bringing in anything that requires a zoo-sanitary permit and you're not sure whether this suspension affects your commodity code, come talk to us.
Originally published at https://www.canflow-global.com/en/insights/pseudorabies-outbreak-us-export-certificates-suspended-for-swine-by-products/.
