REUTERS
Veterinary experts have reported new cases of African swine fever (ASF) in Ukraine, recorded in Kherson and Odesa regions, according to the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service's press office.
Lab tests have confirmed pigs from the Myr farm in Kherson region's Novotroitske district were infected, it said.
The veterinary experts also reported deaths of infected pigs in the Podillia hunting ground in Kostysh and Kaprion districts, as well as a pig in a farm located in the village of Torosove in Odesa region, which was confirmed by the lab tests.
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According to open source data, 145 ASF cases have been reported in Ukraine since the beginning of 2017. In total, 293 ASF outbreaks had been registered in 24 Ukrainian regions since 2012, as of December 15, 2017.
As UNIAN reported, 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.
He forecasts that the total number of outbreaks in 2017 might grow to about 200 cases.
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.