Russia: Pigs with African swine fever virus to be slaughtered

St Petersburg, Jan 12 (Itar-Tass) The St Petersburggovernment in Russia has decided to slaughter all pigs at thefarms of three municipalities, where African swine fever viruswas detected.

Measures to stop the spreading of African swine fevervirus were discussed yesterday at the meeting chaired by St.

Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko and head of the citydepartment of the Federal Veterinarian and PhytosanitaryControl Service Oleg Gromov, a city government representativesaid.

Quarantine and a ban on imports of animals and animalproducts have been on in three municipalities, Krasnoselsky,Pushkinsky and Petrodvortsovsky, since December 31, 2010.

Matviyenko signed a resolution yesterday demandingthe slaughtering of all pigs and the elimination of all cattleproducts in the municipalities under quarantine. Citygovernment workers think that will help confine the virus.

"African swine fever virus does not endanger peoplebut there is no other way to stop the infection from spreadingamongst animals," the city government said.

The farmers will get a refund of 75 rubles -about USD2 per kilo of a live animal.

Pigs, which died of African swine fever in theLeningrad region, must have been brought from otherterritories, Leningrad Regional Governor Valery Serdyukov saidin his letter to Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik onJanuary 7.

He said no African swine virus had been traced atlocal farms.

"We are considering several theories of the Africanswine fever outbreak in the Leningrad region, including apossibility of the infection''s import from other regions," theletter says.

Thirty dead pigs weighing from 20 to 40 kilograms werefound in the Lomonosovsky district of the Leningrad region onNew Year''s Eve. The origin of the pigs infected with Africanswine fever was unknown.

"The dead animals were burned immediately, and the pigpopulation at local farms was double checked. Furtherinformation will be supplied to the Agriculture Ministry," thegovernor said. (Itar-Tass)