AFRICAN SWINE FEVER DISEASE CONTAINED

THERE will be a relaxation of pigs, pig products and pig by-products movement restrictions in Chongwe district of Lusaka Province as the nation has not recorded any new cases since October, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock Permanent Secretary Benson Mwenya has said.

Speaking to The Scoop, Dr. Mwenya said only pigs, pig products and pig by-products from registered farms and processing facilities as stipulated in the animal identification Act shall be allowed to move.

“Pig owners should ensure they have a valid stock movement permit from the district veterinary office and a valid African swine fever negative test result from the central veterinary research institute and an abattoir assurance in order to ensure the African swine fever does not resurface,” he said.

He said the Ministry shall continue to provide guidance as will be deemed necessary in the control of African swine fever.

“All pig farmers, stakeholders and cooperating partners should continue working, supporting and cooperating with the Government to ensure that together we implement stringent measures to completely eradicate the African swine fever disease,” he said.

He added that the recent outbreak of the African swine fever had affected Chaminuka and Palabana areas of Chongwe district and has since thanked the pig farmers for adhering to the measures that were put in place by the Government to contain the situation.

“We want to thank all farmers who reported the disease and whose animals were killed for adhering to the measures that were implemented by the Ministry. We placed movement restrictions on live pigs, pig products and pig by-products and they were not allowed to move in and out of the affected areas.

In order to determine the extent of the spread of the disease, farms within a 10km radius of the affected areas were surveyed. All pigs at the affected facilities were slaughtered, burnt and buried and we thank all the pig farmers for helping the Government contain the disease,” he said.

He said out of the total number of 839 pigs which were affected by the African swine fever, 793 pigs were destroyed while 43 pigs died due to the disease.

“This exercise resulted in the testing of 14, 983 pigs from 34 farms and all the pigs that were tested returned a negative result. After the successful implementation of strict control measures we have not recorded any new cases since 21st October, 2023,” he said.