August 17, 2012

Russia imposes quarantine to curb African swine fever 

In order to stop the spread of the deadly African swine fever (ASF) virus, the government of Russia’s Krasnodar region has introduced a two-month quarantine.

The introduction of the quarantine will include severe restrictions on meat, pig, and feed transportation and an outright ban on the shipment of pork to other regions.

Deputy Governor Eduard Kutygin said on Thursday (Aug 16) that if the authorities do not immediately introduce a quarantine, the regional economy would suffer from further consequences in the future. He also said that the region is currently setting up an industry development programme for the period when the African swine fever virus is dealt with.

He added that in the areas where the outbreaks were detected the transportation of animals, meat, and plants will be banned, though the regime will be less severe in the neighbouring regions.

"Special commissions will decide on whether or not to grant transportation permits," Kutygin said.

The latest outbreak in the region was seen at the Agrokompleks Kanevsky Bekon farm, which houses 7,220 pigs. In July, a farm belonging to agricultural holding Kuban had to slaughter 5,600 pigs, while the Dankub pig farm was ordered to slaughter 15,700 pigs by sanitary watchdog.

The Tver Region has also been quarantined since July. The latest outbreak was registered on August 15 among wild boars.

Outbreaks of AFSV have been registered in 26 districts and cities since 2007, with the majority of cases registered in the Tver, Krasnodar, Volgograd, and Smolensk regions.

The AFSV is a contagious viral disease that is potentially lethal to pigs and boars. The disease poses no health risk to humans, according to the World Organisation of Animal Health.