More outbreaks of African swine fever reported in Russia

2013/7/16 22:59:17

African swine fever spreads in Russia sparking protection measures in Ukraine and other FSU states. Russia's chief state sanitary doctor injects politics into the situation, placing blame on Georgia and the United States.


MOSCOW, July 16, 2013 (UBO) - Russian veterinary authority Rosselkhoznador has reported new cases of African swine fever (ASF) in the Belgorod, Volgograd and Moscow regions, The Pig Site (TPS), an industry supported online publication said today.  

 

“In the Belgorod district the case was found in samples taken from dead pigs on a private farm in the Krasnogvardeyskoe region.

 

“The 14 pigs on the farm were destroyed and the carcases burned together with the pig housing.

 

“In Volgograd, the outbreak was discovered on a private farm in the village of Ust Khoperskaya part of the Ust Khoper settlement in Serafimovichesky district.

 

“The disease was found in samples taken from dead pigs and the veterinary authorities put the control measures for the disease in place.

 

“The final cases were found on another private farm in the Bolshoya Sestra (Big Sister) village in the Osheykinovsky rural settlement in the Lotoshinsky district of Moscow. In this incident the disease was found in two piglets.

 

“Samples were also taken from four dead wild boar found in the Voronisky and Pershamaisky forests in the Klin district of Moscow.

 

“The Russian veterinary authority Rosselkhoznador said that there had been to date seven outbreaks in the Moscow region, including two in the Lotoshinsky district among wild boar and domestic pigs, two in the Klin district in wild boar and three in the Volokolamsk district in wild boar.”

 

african

 

Chief Sanitary Inspector of Russia injects political element to the outbreaks

 

Russia's chief state sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko believes that African swine fever (ASF), which has caused a loss of livestock in Russian regions, came to Russia from Georgia.

 

"This is an objectively-established fact," Interfax quotes Onishchenko, Vestnik Kavkaza reported yesterday.

 

Onishchenko was also quoted as saying that a microbiology laboratory of the U.S. Navy, not under the control of the Georgian authorities, continues to work in Georgia.

 

"The confirmation of the threat is the fact that from 2007 the pathogen of the African swine fever has been actively circulating on the territory of Russia. It has caused enormous economic damage to the southern regions of Russia," Onishchenko said, noting that the creation of the laboratory on the territory of Georgia required $350 million. "My concern is that the lab is beyond the control of the Georgian authorities. The laboratory has been established in the former Soviet military base near Tbilisi. The existence of this lab demonstrates the weakness of the current government of Georgia," the head of Rospotrebnadzor said, Vestnik Kavkaza further reported.

 

 

"We have to spend money in order to assist our allies, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, to strengthen the capacity in real-life bio-security," Onishchenko concluded.

 

Swine fever outbreak reveals sharp dissent in Russia’s veterinary community

 

The political element in the ASF situation was further accentuated by an article in Pravda.ru entitled: “African swine fever ruthlessly ruins Putin's plans”.

 

The article says in part:

 

“According to the Russian Federal Agency for Agricultural Control, Rosselkhoznadzor, swine fever has been reported on the territories of 31 subjects of the federation. In 2013, outbreaks of the disease were registered in North Ossetia, Voronezh, Rostov, Volgograd, Tver, Tambov, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Tula and Moscow regions, Krasnodar and Belgorod regions, which is considered the center of pork production in our country. The only way to fight the epidemic, that cattle-breeders have, is the destruction of livestock. However, a question arises of why veterinarians cannot predict and prevent an epidemic of animal plague in the 21st century?

 

"Of course, we can predict it, and everything is progressing according to the scenario that we predicted, unfortunately,” assistant director of Rosselkhoznadzor Alex Alekseyenko told Pravda.ru. “The situation is very dangerous indeed. This is due to the fact that in reality the roots are far enough in 2004, when an administrative reform took place and the veterinary service was literally split into regional and federal levels. The reform led to the creation of separate stand-alone veterinary services in all business departments. The situation has been unmanageable since then."

[See complete article at: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/econo ... 59-african_swine_fever-0/ ]

 

###

 

Editor’s Note: To access resources regarding African swine fever, link below:

http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/3 ... ican-swine-fever-reported

 

Graphic courtesy of The Pig Site; File photo re African swine fever detection

Printer Friendly Page Send this Story to a Friend Create a PDF from the article