August 23, 2011

African swine fever hits Russia's Tver region

The African swine fever has killed numerous pigs in a private farm in the Tver region of Russia on August 18.

The fever was discovered from pathological material samples from the pigs' corpses during a laboratory examination, stated the region's officials of the sanitary epidemiological service.

It was also reported that cattle were also lost in the Tver region, at a farm located near Torzhok city.
 

Based on test results, experts also confirm the presence of African swine fever in the blood of the dead pigs.

"Laboratory tests proved that at two farms of the Tver Region a number of animals were discovered to be dead due to African swine fever," said Yuri Danilov, head of Rosselkhoznaldzor branch in Tver and Pskov regions. Three hundred animals were affected in total at the two farms, and so far all of them have been eliminated.

A few days ago, another outbreak of a dangerous disease was registered in the Kuban region, at the farm of Granite Company. In early August, another pig farm belonging to this producer had been hit by the virus. The outbreak, which was registered on August 12 is the most disruptive out of all that had been registered in Russia since the beginning of the year, according to experts.