Due to the spread of African Swine Fever throughout Russia, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture is contemplating action to close all hog farms.
The action is to prevent further spread of the virus in the country, which officials suggest could result in the loss of one million pigs.
“In order to resolve this problem, we will have to transfer all hog farms to the closed type of production,” said the Russian minister of agriculture recently.
The direct economic loss from African Swine Fever could tally into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Further spread of the disease could also destroy the country’s pig production industry and the whole program of livestock development.
“New outbreaks of the disease can arise where there is no proper veterinary protection of pig farms and where farm management violates the veterinary and sanitary regulations,” the Russian minister of agriculture said.
Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO UN) has expressed concerns regarding the spread of African Swine Fever in Russia. FAO officials fear the deadly disease could spread to other regions outside Russia including the European Union, eastern Europe and areas around the Black Sea.
In a worst-case scenario, the disease could even spread to central Asia and China, which has the largest pig population in the world.
The virus can spread locally and over wide geographic regions by moving infected pigs or contaminated pork products.