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Published Date: 2012-08-01 14:31:30
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> African swine fever - Ukraine: (ZP) domestic pig, 1st case
Archive Number: 20120801.1224154

AFRICAN SWINE FEVER - UKRAINE: (ZHAPORIZHIA), DOMESTIC PIG, FIRST CASE
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Date: Wed 1 Aug 2012
Source: Interfax [edited]
http://www.interfax.com.ua/eng/main/112850/

African swine fever has been registered in the Zaporizhia region, the State Veterinary and Biosecurity Service of Ukraine has reported.

The report says that losses of pigs from the virus were registered in Komyshuvatka, Zaporizhia region in a private household.

The possible source of infection could be people from Russia coming to Ukraine on holidays with meat products.

On 31 Jul 2012, a quarantine was introduced at the location of the outbreak. The road is blocked, and transport bypasses the settlement. A working group has been created and has left for the Zaporizhia region to coordinate the response to the disease outbreak.

Veterinary services have distributed and delivered disinfection agents and agreed on the allocation of the required amount of jellied petrol for burning slaughtered infected pigs.

The report says that the State Veterinary and Biosecurity Service has told persons who breed pigs not to give them food waste of unknown origin, not to buy animal products on unregulated food markets, and not to allow pets to come into contact with wild animals and strangers.

Rosselkhoznadzor says that the virus could have come from Russia, despite the fact that the source of the disease was not detected.

"It could be, as our countries permit the carrying of 5-kg hand luggage with food," Rosselkhoznadzor Head Sergei Dankvert has said. "We've been saying for a long time that if you joined the WTO, let's stick to principles that are in effect in the European Union, where imports of any vegetable and animal products are toughly restricted, including in the hand luggage of passengers. We cannot check every tourist, as there are no regulations to allow this," he said. "'Meat trains' are coming from Ukraine to us, and food goes from us to Ukraine, but we have to understand that today we're exchanging dangerous food from a veterinary point of view," he said. He added that such food as smoked sausage and smoked salo (pork fat) were withdrawn from the supervision of Rosselkhoznadzor.

African swine fever infects domestic pigs, warthogs and wild pigs. There is no vaccine or treatment.

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[The spread of ASF into Ukraine from adjacent infected Russian territory is not surprising. The issue has been repeatedly raised, recently in FAO's EMPRES Transboundary Animal Diseases Bulletin No. 40 (July 2012), cited in posting 20120728.1218320.

Komyshuvatka, near Prymorsk on the north of the Azov Sea shores, is in the Zaporizhia (Zaporiz'ka) oblast, which is in southeastern Ukraine, bordering the Russian oblast Rostov. The distance to the Russian border is about 170 km; maps at http://www.fallingrain.com/world/UP/26/Komyshuvatka.html and http://tinyurl.com/c5yvtnc. - Mod.AS

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1z-2.]

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