Since the beginning of the year, 36 foci of African swine fever have been registered in Russia

From the beginning of 2021 until the end of the first ten days of April, outbreaks of African plague were registered in the Russian Federation in 36 settlements, the Veterinary and Life departmental publication of the ROSSELKHOZNADZOR reports, citing data from the ARRIAH Information and Analytical Center.

As of April 9, 19 outbreaks have occurred in wild boar populations and 17 in farm animals. In the first days of April, two new epizootic foci of ASF emerged in the Khabarovsk Territory and one in the Komi Republic.

In one of the farms in the village of Konstantinovka, Khabarovsk Territory, where 131 pigs were kept, the ASF virus caused the death of six individuals, another 16 got sick. In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, two pigs developed symptoms of the disease, one of them died. 

And the village of Malaya Sluda lost one of the 57 animals in the private farm. All pigs within a radius of 15 kilometers must be seized and destroyed by April 17.

The Federal Center for Animal HEALTH (FGBI ARRIAH) considers the ASF epizootic situation in RUSSIA to be complex and predicts that by the end of the year, another 132 foci will appear in the country among agricultural livestock and 69 in wild fauna. Outbreaks are expected in previously prosperous regions with a high density of pig farms.

Veterinary and Life notes that the spread of ASF threatens not only private households and farmers, but also large pig breeding companies. At the end of last year, an outbreak occurred in the Miratorg pig-breeding complex in the Kursk region, and in January of this year, at the feedlot of PJSC Cherkizovo Group in the Tambov region. Experts from the National Union of Pig Breeders (NSS) estimated that from November 2020 to January 2021, about 560 thousand pigs were destroyed due to ASF.