Thailand watches out against African swine fever

BANGKOK, November 26 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has worked out measures to strictly prevent any outbreak of the African swine fever (ASF) in the country. Sorawit Thanito, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Livestock Development, told journalists of the update on Monday, after a piece of 800-gram-sausage kept in a Chinese tourist's baggage was found recently to have been contaminated with the acute animal viral disease. "Recently, officers at the animal checkpoint of the Chiang Rai International Airport in the Thai North were alerted by a sniffer dog and then found the 800-gram piece of sausage tightly-wrapped up inside the baggage of a Chinese passenger from Chengdu in China's Sichuan Province.The piece of the sausage was then seized for a test at an official laboratory and was confirmed to have been contaminated with the ASF virus", Sorawit explained. Sorawit said his department's move on the high alert against the ASF has also been included in the national agenda as the acute animal viral disease could cause a serious damage to the national food security and economy as earlier warned by the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OiE). According to the senior official, OiE has reported on confirmed ASF cases in 16 countries so far this year, comprising of 11 European, 4 African and one Asian countries and his department has issued an official notice on a 90-day slowdown in all imports of live pigs, swine remains and pork products from China immediate after an OiE announcement on confirmed ASF cases in China, the only affected-Asian nation, on August 3 because China's latest ASF outbreaks were confirmed in Yunnan Province, located near Chiang Rai Province, as well as Lao PDR and Vietnam. The senior official cautioned as the ASF virus can spread easily through all means of land, sea and air transport and is highly-bearable in the environment although it cannot be transmitted to humans, the strict preventive measures, imposed by his department, include thorough checks of international passengers' baggage at all airports and cross-border checkpoints, as well as public campaigns and information dissemination through all channels to create awareness and proper understanding on the acute animal viral disease among people and all other concerned parties, the moves of which are also supported by the Swine Raisers Association of Thailand. Besides, full preparations for laboratories and other relevant facilities and systems have also been arranged to timely and properly deal with any suspected or confirmed ASF case, if verified, namely sanitary landfill closures and disinfectant services. The senior officials revealed that the Pig Board will also discuss soon an earmarked budget, proposed by his department, for financial assistance to be provided for affected local swine raisers and farms, if any in the future, as the swine raising sector has created tens of thousands of revenues in Thailand. (TNA)