African swine fever threatens Russian pig population

The damage from the epidemic today stands at millions of euros for each affected region.

According to Russian media reports, regional authorities have already destroyed more than 22,000 pigs mainly in the southern part of Russia while new outbreaks could lead to a shortage of pork and pigs throughout the whole country.

Analysts believe that if the infection becomes more widespread and moves into the Central and Volga federal districts, it may destroy up to 41.4% of the Russian pig population.

To date, the material damage from the spread of the dangerous virus has already exceeded billions of rubles, not counting farmers' losses.

''At the moment, the authorities of the Stavropol region (Russian South) have already destroyed 30,000 pigs due to the ASF. The direct losses amounted to approximately RUB300 million (US$10.0 million), while the indirect damage is RUB5-6 billion (US$167-200 million).''

North Ossetia has lost all of its pig population - about 200,000 heads, and its direct losses amounted to RUB200 million (US$6.69 million). In general, only the direct damage in Russia from the epidemic amounted to RUB1 billion (US$33.4 million), said deputy head of the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Nikolai Vlasov.