VOLGOGRAD, January 9 (RIA Novosti) – Local authorities have declared a state of emergency and enacted a pig quarantine after an outbreak of African swine fever in a village in Russia’s southern Volgograd Region, a health official said Thursday.
A total of 203 pigs in the village of Gusyovka have been quarantined, a representative of the regional Emergencies Ministry said, in the first incidence of swine fever of the year in the region.
Officials declared the quarantine after the preliminary diagnosis of a pig with the viral disease at a local lab on January 6 was confirmed by Russia’s veterinary research institute.
African swine fever, a highly contagious and often fatal illness that affects pigs and wild boars, was first found in Russia in 2007. Scientists believe the disease was carried to the North Caucasus region by wild boars from neighboring Georgia.
Pig farms are often forced to slaughter large numbers of their livestock to prevent the spread of African swine fever, which was reported in dozens of outbreaks across a number of Russian regions last year.
