In the Western Hemisphere at the end of July, the first outbreak of African swine fever in almost 40 years was recorded on pig farms in the Dominican Republic. The deadly disease was also found in Haiti. The world’s second-largest pork producer, the United States, will try to prevent the disease and save its $ 7.7 billion pork export industry.
That is why the authorities are so worried. “It’s not just Puerto Rico. It’s a problem for the whole of the United States,” said Ramon Gonzalez, the island’s agriculture minister.
African swine fever (ASF) is a deadly viral disease that kills an animal within 10 days. “This is probably the worst pig disease,” said Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian of the National Pork Council, an industry group representing 60,000 American pork producers.
The difficulty of combating ASF is that it is difficult to eradicate and at the same time it is very easily transmitted. In the course of research, the virus was detected in the bone marrow of long-dead pigs and in dried ham products.
If the United States allows the spread of animal plague, the problem for them will be serious, given that pork exports to the United States is about 7.7 billion dollars a year, according to Money.bg.
There is no cure for ASF, so killing pigs and thoroughly disinfecting farms afterwards is one of the few ways to fight the disease. The Dominican Republic has already slaughtered more than 65,700 pigs this year, trying to avoid a repeat of the outbreak, similar to the one in the 1970s, when more than 1.4 million animals were killed.
China has been battling numerous outbreaks since it was first detected there in 2018. ASF is currently present in 50 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia.
“This could be the most serious animal health crisis of our generation,” say veterinarians.
The United States does not import pork from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Puerto Rico recently banned the export of any pork products to the continental United States.
The island’s ports and airports are constantly monitored, but smuggling channels through migrants are more difficult to control.