Russia’s Rosselkhoznadzor: Animal feed theft behind ASF epidemic
Animal feed thefts in Russia may be to blame for the latest outbreaks of African Swine Fever on industrial farms, according to Rosselkhoznadzor’s website.
Hog feed stolen from two industrial farms located in the Tver and Krasnodar regions may be spreading the virus. The culprit could be the bags, coming from private yards, used to carry the stolen feed out, Alexei Alekseenko, spokesman for Rosselkhoznadzor, said by phone in Moscow today.
Nikolai Vlasov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor, appealed farm owners and veterinary officials to pay “extreme attention” to guards that work on farms.
About 76,000 pigs out of 800,000 in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia are infected with ASF and will be killed, the region’s government said on its website yesterday.
Governor Alexander Tkachev declared a state of emergency in the area because of the virus, according to the statement.
About 500,000 pigs died or have been killed in ASF outbreaks in Russia since the virus was discovered in the country in 2007, Alekseenko said.
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