Product safety watchdog suggests hogs in Belgorod Region be slaughtered
BELGOROD. July 19 (Interfax) - Russia's Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight Service (Rosselkhoznadzor) is proposing that all hogs in Belgorod Region belonging to households and hog-raising businesses of all types of ownership that do not have sufficient biological protection be slaughtered in response to African swing fever.
"Extraordinary measures are necessary. If we don't do this, then the possibility is not ruled out of a repeat outbreak of the virus, and then the losses will be immitigable," a statement from the regional Rosselkhoznadzor division quotes the service's deputy chief Nikolai Vlasov, who is visiting the region in association with the discovery of the disease there.
Vlasov the cause of the disease's introduction into the region is private household farms. "The investigation found that the virus was brought in not by wild species [this was of the most concern], the fault goes to unregulated private household farms, when the irresponsibility of one person brought to naught the efforts of the regional authorities, representatives of business, and veterinary doctors," he said.
Rosselkhoznadzor recommends the total commission inspection of all farmer and private farms, checking each animal, and not only those where hogs are registered. "The region's residents have to understand this. Businesses that do not follow the established rules have to quickly cease their activities," he said.
The Belgorod Region branch of Rosselkhoznadzor has sent the South-East railway, the airport, bus station, and central post office letters ordering the cessation of the unsanctioned transportation of the products of hog-raising in passenger hand luggage and baggage that come from regions where the disease has been found.
At present, all Rosselkhoznadzor divisions and the federal state budgetary institution Belgorod MVL are working at a stepped up pace. Specialists are doing checks on the administration of agricultural towns as to their preparedness for an outbreak of African swine fever, as well as private farms and households, slaughterhouses, catering enterprises, and places where hogs and pig products are sold. These have turned up a series of violations of veterinary law, the statement says.
The danger of the disease in the region stems from it being one of Russia's biggest hog-raising regions. It produced 221,500 tonnes of pork in the first half. The spread of the disease could cause huge financial losses.
The disease was discovered in Belgorod Region this past weekend at a private yard in the town of Livenka in the Krasnogvardesky district. Fourteen hogs there were slaughtered.