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Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Thoko Didiza.
announced on Saturday that an outbreak of African swine fever was detected in
Eastern Cape Province for the first time.
The minister said the outbreak was detected after the
the department’s veterinary services carried out post-mortem investigations of livestock
in Amathole District Township in April.
The new outbreak comes months after the department had to
announce a government ban on the public auction of hoofed cattle to avoid
a foot and mouth extension in December.
African swine flu kills almost all infected pigs and has no
treatment for infected and vaccine-free pigs. Symptoms include bleeding in the
skin and shortness of breath.
Didiza said the department has sent a notification to the
World Health Organization for Animal Health after autopsy
The investigations found African swine fever.
“The control measures currently in force include that all
infected pigs should be as far away from those that are not and should be
housed only to avoid contact with other pigs in the area to limit spread
of the disease, “Didiza said.
Didiza said the outbreak occurred in a community setting,
which makes movement control and biosecurity between the respective pig herds
hard.
The minister said that if unaffected commercial pigs pigs
the farms in the area are moved to the slaughterhouse for slaughter, they must be
accompanied by health certifications to declare that the herds of origin do not have
showed signs indicative of ASF or had higher than normal pig deaths.
She urged farmers and livestock owners to keep their pigs
closed and only by pigs from a reliable source.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spokesman Reggie Ngcobo
He said the department has asked the police to ensure there is no movement of pigs between
pigs and without unnecessary contact between pigs and people.
- READ | Wandile Sihlobo: how African swine fever is likely to reach world meat prices
The World Health Organization for Animal Health has
Continued work to improve surveillance, monitoring and testing of
animals for diseases such as African swine fever.
In its 2019 animal disease surveillance report, OEI said
developed a method to estimate the slippage of quarantine materials
potentially contaminated with African swine fever virus through the air
passenger luggage route.
“In the course of development, we found that shared data
sources make focus extensible to plant protection quarantine
applications, creating the potential for an animal and plant health inspection
broad standard methodology service, “the report said.
