African swine fever may put end to swine-breeding in Russia

MOSCOW, Oct 15 (PRIME) -- African swine fever is threatening to spread across all of Russia, where both wild and domestic animals have succumbed to the illness in the Rostov and Tver regions, Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight, Nikolai Vlasov, said on Tuesday.

“The disease has gone beyond the central parts of Russia and into Belarus,” Vlasov said.

He said that the hotspots may merge.

“In this event the whole territory of the Russian Federation will become unfavorable in terms of the African swine fever and traditional pig-breeding will become impossible. The African swine fever forecast is bad,” he said.

Vlasov said that Russia has 89 infected hotspots and 89 contaminated objects.

“Despite the measures we have taken, the situation is worsening fast,” Vlasov said. “We’ve never had so many hotspots.”

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