REUTERS
A total of 163 ASF cases were registered in Ukraine in 2017.
Veterinary experts have reported new cases of African swine fever (ASF) in Ukraine's Vinnytsia, Ternopil and Sumy regions.
Households located in the villages of Kyslytsia and Loshchynivka (Odesa region's Izmail district), the village of Maly Vystorop (Sumy region's Lebedyn district), and the village of Stizhok (Ternopil region's Shumsk district) were the center of the ASF outbreaks.
Lab tests conducted by experts confirmed the animals there had been infected.
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To coordinate efforts to limit the spread of ASF and eliminate the outbreaks, Izmail, Shumsk and Lebedyn district administrations' biosecurity commissions met to pass an action plan addressing the ASF cases. They also defined the boundaries of epizootic outbreaks, protection zones and areas for monitoring.
As UNIAN reported earlier, as many as 163 ASF cases were reported in Ukraine in 2017.
According to the forecast by the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service published in January 2017, if the current trend of the ASF spread continued, Ukraine would lose over 1.2 million pigs worth a total of UAH 4 billion by 2020, while indirect losses would increase by an estimated UAH 5-7.5 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.