New swine fever outbreaks recorded in two Ukrainian regions

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

As of February 9, seven corpses of wild boars had been found in Lantrativsky section No. 2 in Luhansk region's Troyitske district, the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service's press office said.

Read alsoSwine fever outbreak reported in Ukraine's Kirovohrad regionMoreover, three corpses of wild boars were found in the Shaitanska Lisova Dacha hunting ground in Donetsk region's Velyka Novosilka district.

Lab tests conducted by experts from the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Laboratory of Veterinary Medicine confirmed on February 9 the boars were infected.

In order to coordinate efforts to limit the spread of ASF and eliminate the outbreaks, Velyka Novosilka and Troyitske district administrations' biosecurity commissions had a meeting to adopt an action plan to address ASF cases. They also defined the boundaries of epizootic outbreaks, protection zones and areas for monitoring.

It is noted that measures are being taken to contain and prevent the spread of the ASF pathogen.

Read alsoPig livestock in Ukraine to shrink to historic minimum – analyst 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.