MikeLigalig.com

by pna

The United Nations warned Tuesday that African swine fever (ASF), a pig disease, has established a firm foothold in the Caucasus region and poses an ongoing risk to neighboring areas, though control measures appear to have temporarily halted the disease's spread.

The UN warning came following the first-ever detection of the disease in Ukraine.

"National and local authorities in the entire region should scale up their prevention measures and be ready to respond in case of further outbreaks," the chief veterinary officer of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Juan Lubroth, said in a news release.

In addition to some other parts of Ukraine, nearby countries like Moldova, Kazakhstan and Latvia, which have large pig populations raised on household or family farms, and often with reportedly weak bio-security measures, are also now at high risk of the disease's introduction, according to FAO.

ASF does not affect humans, but mortalities in domestic pigs can be extremely high. In 2011, up to 300,000 pigs died or were culled as a result of ASF outbreaks in Russia, incurring an estimated 240 million U.S. dollars in economic losses.

Lubroth noted that Ukraine has responded quickly, implementing sanitary measures, destroying affected pigs and imposing a quarantine zone around the village where the outbreaks occurred.

Most importantly, he added, Ukraine has paid farmers compensation for pigs that were slaughtered and properly disposed of, so that poor families that depend on pig-raising for food and income are not left ruined by the loss of their pigs.

All countries at risk should stand ready to detect any ASF outbreaks as soon as they occur and respond in a similarly proactive fashion, according to FAO.

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