November 1, 2011

Russia declares new swine fever outbreaks

Three new African Swine Fever (AFS) outbreaks were reported in the south of Russia and in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine, Russia's animal and plant health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said Monday (Oct 31).

In all three cases the outbreaks of the disease, lethal to pigs, but harmless to humans, took place at small backyard farms, the watchdog said.

Medium and large Russian pig breeding farms are well protected against ASF, which has no cure, and other diseases. It is mainly small farms that are affected by the contagious virus, which is spread partly by wild boars.

ASF, which was confirmed for the first time in Russia in 2007, has so far been found mainly in the south of the country. However, outbreaks were found even in the northwest regions of Russia.

In 2011, the watchdog registered 37 ASF outbreaks, of which 27 were at pig farms and 10 among wild boars, it said.

Rosselkhoznadzor said it was implementing a plan of preventing the virus proliferation.

It had inspected a number of pig-breeding facilities in the Moscow region and in some other regions, having imposed fines on some farms and temporarily closing others, which were found violating sanitary and veterinary rules.