The Official Commission for the Control and Eradication of Outbreaks of African Swine Fever of the Dominican Republic reported this Monday that the disease has been detected in eleven provinces of the country.
The phytosanitary authorities have indicated that the disease that affects pigs has spread for the moment in the provinces of Sánchez Ramírez, Santiago, Hermanas Mirabal, La Vega, Montecristi, Elías Piña, San Juan and the National District, according to a statement. of the Ministry of Agriculture of the country.
Faced with this situation, the protocol for the isolation of the virus has been activated in these areas, with the support of international organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) or the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation. for Agriculture (IICA), among others.
Working groups made up of a veterinarian, experts from the country’s Agricultural Bank, assistants or security members are in different farms to carry out the control and eradication of the disease.
Thus, the teams have proceeded to slaughter the pigs, “the only sanitary measure to stop the disease according to the established protocol.”
In this sense, the Ministry of Agriculture has stressed that it is applying “all the recommendations of the international organizations to contain the advance of the disease” and implementing the regulations that “the existing sanitary situation dictates.”
“Through Banco Agrícola we guarantee payment according to the current market price for the pigs that are slaughtered in the demarcations so that the producers are not economically affected,” the portfolio explained.
Likewise, it has indicated that the experts of the Agricultural Bank are carrying out the process of appraising the copies and filling out forms, so that the pig farmers “can withdraw the funds for compensation within a period between twelve and fifteen days. “.
On the other hand, he pointed out that contingency and vehicular disinfection work are being carried out in all affected provinces and in a “preventive manner” in nearby towns.
For its part, the FAO has alerted the countries of the region to take preventive measures in light of the recent detection of cases in the Dominican Republic, although it has recalled that “it does not represent a risk to human health”, but “causes up to one hundred per hundred mortality in pigs “,” leading to serious economic losses. “
The first case detected in the Dominican Republic was notified to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on July 29. This is the first confirmed case in the Western Hemisphere since the 1980s.
