New outbreak of African swine fever reported in southern Russia
MOSCOW. July 27 (Interfax) - The Federal Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Oversight Service has reported a new outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in the Krasnodar Territory.
The service said Friday that genetic traces of the virus were found in pathological samples taken from pigs that had died at LLC Krasnodar Fattening Complex.
The complex, located 60 km from Krasnodar, has 3,900 pigs, and there are 24,384 pigs in the area where the complex is located, including 21,714 at public farms and 2,670 at personal small holdings.
The distance from the complex with the infected pigs to the closest pig farm, owned by CJSC Dankub, which holds more than 11,000 pigs, is about 5 km.
The veterinary service's Krasnodar Territory branch is conducting an investigation and taking the necessary measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
There were two outbreaks of ASF in this same area in January and February of this year, the service said.
A new major ASF was reported on Thursday at BaEl's pig farming complex in Krasnodar Territory. There are 5,700 pigs in the outbreak zone, and a total of about 23,000 pigs at the complex.
An earlier ASF outbreak was reported at a major commercial pig farm in Tver Region. At least 33,000 pigs will be slaughtered and incinerated at the Ru-Com group's Zavolzhskoye breeding farm. There are another 90,000 pigs at a second site. "Measures are now being taken to prevent them from getting infected, but it's not a fact that this will succeed," Veterinary Service deputy head Nikolai Vlasov told Interfax.
ASF is a serious threat to pig farming since there is no vaccine for this disease. Virtually all pigs in an outbreak area are usually slaughtered and incinerated.
