"The threat is serious." In the Tyumen region, after bird flu, an outbreak of ASF may occur

Sergey Sizikov, head of the internal veterinary supervision department of the Rosselkhoznadzor department , talks about how the region can avoid the spread of African swine fever.

The Tyumen region has not yet recovered from the outbreak of bird flu, which knocked out the largest poultry farm, and experts are already warning about a new threat - African swine fever (ASF). It is raging in the neighboring Sverdlovsk region. Sergey Sizikov, head of the department of internal veterinary supervision of the regional department of Rosselkhoznadzor, says that not all pig-breeding enterprises comply with veterinary rules, and this is fraught with huge problems for the agricultural sector.

- So far, the Tyumen region is safe, but the threat of the introduction of the virus is very serious. The most common outbreaks occur in small-scale pig farms, which, as a rule, do not have biological protection and operate on a “what I want, I turn back” principle. Pigs are let out for a walk, they are fed with food waste, they do not wear overalls when caring for pigs, and they buy feed from their hands, without documents. There are no disinfection mats in pig-breeding premises and so on. The wild boar is also a threat. As a rule, in such farms there is either a hunter or mushroom pickers and berry pickers who can bring the ASF virus from the forest.

In the Sverdlovsk region, the cause of infection of pigs was non-thermally processed food waste. According to veterinary legislation, the feeding of food waste is not prohibited, but only after boiling for 30 minutes from the moment of boiling. People know about this, but often neglect.

Meanwhile, only in October, the Rosselkhoznadzor detected products with the ASF genome in 11 subjects of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Tatarstan, Kursk, Moscow, Belgorod, Yaroslavl regions, Mari El and others. Such deliveries are carried out in all regions, and it is difficult to trace these products, since they have time to sell them. Therefore, pig farms need to be as vigilant as possible.

There are four large pig-breeding enterprises in the Tyumen region (ZAO Plemzavod Yubileyny, OOO Soglasie, OOO SK Olimp, and the Tyumensky pig complex). And there, too, there is a danger, since not all enterprises comply with veterinary rules.

For example, this year the level of biological protection was lowered at Soglasie LLC. The reason is numerous violations of the requirements of veterinary legislation. So, the entrance to the production premises is not equipped with a veterinary and sanitary checkpoint with full shower treatment, change of clothes and shoes; groups of pigs, such as "producer boars" and "repair pigs" (site "Breeding Farm"), are not assigned veterinary specialists; the slaughterhouse and meat processing plant of Soglasie LLC do not operate under the control of the state veterinary inspector.

If ASF is detected, the entire population of pigs in the outbreak will have to be destroyed, and the corpses burned. Of course, this is a very big economic loss for the region.

In 2017, an ASF outbreak occurred at a pig farm in Shorokhovo. Over 17,000 pigs were destroyed. The supervisory authority clarifies that the company could not recover and is no longer working.

As for the outbreak of bird flu at the Borovsk poultry farm, the disposal of chickens is now being completed, the burning will end by November 15th. The company will be able to resume its activities only next year.