South Africa suffers its largest-ever outbreak of African swine fever
From Bloomberg
South Africa is s
uffering its biggest-ever outbreak of African Swine Fever, a provincial veterinary official said.
The disease was discovered early last month at eight farms near Delmas, a town 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Johannesburg, Malcolm de Bude, chief director of veterinary services for Gauteng province, said in a mobile phone interview this week.
“This is the largest outbreak of the disease we’ve ever experienced,” he said, adding that about 300 animals were at risk at the infected farms.
The outbreak could threaten the country’ pork industry, which boasts 1.63 million pigs and an annual production value of more than 3 billion rand ($392 million), according to the country’s agriculture ministry. Tens of thousands of pigs have been slaughtered this year and last year in Russia in a bid to contain outbreaks of the disease.