Swine fever outbreaks registered in three regions simultaneously

Veterinary experts have reported new cases of African swine fever (ASF) in Ukraine, which were recorded in Donetsk, Mykolaiv and Chernihiv regions.

Two corpses of domestic pigs were found between the villages of Petrivka and Kyrylivka in Donetsk's region Volnovakha district in Ukraine's east, the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service's press office said.

Also, deaths of pigs were reported by a private farm in the town of Nova Odesa in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine's south.

Read alsoNew swine fever outbreaks recorded in two Ukrainian regionsMoreover, three corpses of wild boars were found in hunting grounds near the village of Yuzhne in Chernihiv region's Ichnia district, Ukraine's north.

Tests in all the cases revealed the DNA of African swine fever (ASF) virus.

Measures are being taken to contain and prevent the spread of the ASF pathogen.

As UNIAN reported earlier, 18 ASF cases was reported in Ukraine in January 2018. In total, 326 ASF outbreaks had been registered in Ukraine since 2012, including 163 cases in 2017 alone.

Head of the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service Volodymyr Lapa said earlier that if the current trend of the ASF spread continued, Ukraine would lose over 1.2 million pigs, or UAH 4 billion, by 2020, while indirect losses would increase by an amount estimated between UAH 5 billion and UAH 7.5 billion.

UNIAN memo. African swine fever (Montgomery disease) is a contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs. The disease bears no threat to humans. The virus is transmitted by direct contact between sick and healthy animals, through pork products, and also transmitted by ticks and mechanically (by vehicles during transportation of people and animals). There are no vaccines against the virus. Almost all infected pigs die. The virus is destroyed by heating to extremely high temperatures.