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New outbreak of African swine fever fixed in Russian Volgograd region

According to preliminary data, over 10,000 pigs are to be culled

VOLGOGRAD, July 26 (Itar-Tass) - A fresh outbreak of African swine fever was fixed on Friday in the Uryupinsk district of Russia’s Volgograd region, a regional government source told Itar-Tass. The source said the diagnosis was confirmed by a Volgograd district veterinary laboratory.

On Thursday, an outbreak of ASF in the Uryupinsk district was fixed in a private household in the Besplemyanovsky farm. “As farms of the whole Uryupinsk district get within the first threatened zone, it was decided to impose quarantine on the territory of the region,” the press service of the regional government reports. “In order to liquidate ASF centers and to prevent a further spread of the dangerous infection across the Volgograd region all pigs must be slaughtered,” it said.

According to preliminary data, over 10,000 pigs are to be culled. This is already the second district in the Volgograd region where all pigs are to be slaughtered because of African swine fever. Earlier, about 6,000 pigs were slaughtered in the Alekseyevsky district. About 1,000 pigs were culled in the Nekhayevsky and Serafimovichsky districts.

Authorities in the Volgograd region have ordered to increase the number of quarantine posts to 70 from 54 last week in connection with a fresh outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in the Uryupinsk district of the Volgograd region on Thursday.

The first case of African swine fever or Montgomery’s disease was registered in South Africa in 1903. Both domestic pigs and wild boars are susceptible to the disease in natural conditions. The infection is contracted through contact of healthy and sick animals. While African swine fever is of no threat to humans, it is extremely dangerous for livestock. There is no anti-ASF vaccine and the only way to fight the infection is disinfection, quarantine and the slaughter of the entire pig population in the seat of infection.