126 African Swine Fever Outbreaks, Stray dogs and cats Outlawed - LivestockTrend

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Friday 16 November 2018

126 African Swine Fever Outbreaks, Stray dogs and cats Outlawed


Stray cats and dogs in Ukraine have been given the boot after they were suspected to have potentials of spreading the African Swine Fever virus – the disease which has been plaguing Ukraine’s livestock throughout the year.

The country has recorded about 126 outbreaks of African Swine Fever in 2018 alone, 37 less than last year as recorded by the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service.  
Authorities in Southern Ukrainian cities put forward releases for the extermination of stray cats and dogs to mitigate further spread of the virus. This development has since sparked protests by ecologists in the cities involved. The ecologists initially perceived that the campaign only sought to eliminate wild boars (who are known spreaders of the virus) and not all wild animals (in which case, stray dogs and cats would be included).

The southern Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv launched campaigns to ‘eliminate all wild animals from the streets’ as they might further spread the virus. This occurred after massive outbreaks in August were recorded in Kherson. Kherson championed the campaign, and a similar one was soon launched in Mykolaiv.

Marina Malakhova, chairman of Kherson sanitary service, speaking to journalists at news outlet Politeka, explained that the local authorities acted in accordance with general Ukraininan approach in tackling the Swine Fever outbreaks, which clearly implied that all wild animals within quarantined areas should be totally exterminated and that the city having recorded three outbreaks in September had now become a ‘quarantine zone.’

Vladimir Mikolayenko, mayor of Kherson revealed that the campaign was called off as a result of the pressure mounted on the local authorities by ecologists and that all previously captured animals had now been restored.

Volodimir Lapa, chairman of the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service revealed at a press conference in Kiev that ‘there were concerns about the high presence of the virus in finished pork products.’ This was in light of the news which spread concerning certain companies who attempted to use infected pork in finished pork products.

Investigations conducted in twelve regions revealed that the virus was absent in meat products in grocery stores. Mr. Lapa described these findings as ‘better than expected’ and stated that these investigations will be conducted regularly to ascertain that grocery shelves were Swine Fever free.
The Swine Fever outbreak has not spared pig population in the country and there has been consistent decline since the first outbreak was recorded in 2014. In August, there were over 6.5 million pigs in the country, 5% less compared with last year.
Prices of pork products have also increased, with about 15% - 25% increases expected to have already occurred.



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