Dominican Republic, A neighbor of the United States, can lose the source of food – about half of their livestock. More than half a million pigs will have to kill due to the outbreak of the African plague. Reports about it Bloomberg.
According to the president of the Dominican Piggystrian Federation of Francisco Bratit, hundreds of thousands of Dominicans depend on pig breeding. The Republic has one of the highest rates of pork consumption in North and South America and herself provides it.
President of the Upper Chamber of the Agricultural Commission Rafael Abel stated that the Government needs to kill all, healthy and patients, pigs in 11 of the 33 provinces of the Dominican Republic. Otherwise, the disease can cause the repetition of the outbreak of 1978, when it had to destroy all the cattle in the country. According to the Dominican Piggy Federation, in these 11 provinces, including the capital of Santo Domingo, more than half of all livestock are excreted.
The Ministry of Agriculture began to kill patients with animals and isolated affected areas, but refrained from mass destruction. How many pigs are already infected, the department did not report.
United States, Mexico, Brazil and other countries tightened border control with the Dominican Republic due to the plague. In America, the world’s largest pork producer after China – it was no outbreaks of African pork fever. The US Department of Agriculture fears that the disease will cause serious damage to cattlemen and the American economy if it penetrates into the country.
African pig plague was first discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century. The disease causes fever, weight loss, weakness. An animal dies 7-10 days after infection. The vaccine is not yet invented, so the only way to stop the plague is to stack the sick pigs. Disease is not transmitted to people.