A lot pigs He had to be euthanized in Italy last week The effort to contain the largest African swine fever (ASF) outbreak to affect the country since the 1960s and threaten the entire pork industry, The Guardian reported.
Approximately 34,000 animals were slaughtered in LombardyA region known as Italy’s “pig belt” and one of Europe’s main pork producing regions.
The epidemic in Lombardy “spread rapidly” and was “represented” “Since the region is the largest pork producer, it is a major threat to the entire industry.” Francesco Feliziani, director of the Prophylactic Institute of the Experimental Zoo of Umbria and Marche, which serves as the national reference center for African swine fever, said the country was in the best shape.
An infected farm was adapted to function as a “mobile slaughterhouse”, an activity that was developed. A spokesman for animal rights organization We Animals Media said it had been going on for more than a week.
““Workers took pigs from other infected farms and took them to temporary gas chambers placed inside containers where the animals were sacrificed,” he added, according to RT.
The elimination of Italian pigs is a necessary measure to control the disease because There is no vaccine against African swine fever.Feliziani explained.
Vincent ter Beek, editor of Pig Progress, which tracks the worldwide ASF outbreak, explained that although the sacrifices made in Italy were great, they were not the greatest sacrifices made in the European Union.
“African swine fever was also seen in Romania a few years ago,” he said. “Compared to […] These are relatively small numbers. […] I’m not trying to belittle anything. This amount is terrible for both producers and pigs, but it is not the largest in the EU“ter Beek added.
The last country to join the list was Sweden. More than 2,000 outbreaks have been recorded in 14 countriesThey include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Germany, Poland, Moldova, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and Ukraine, according to Corriere Della Sera.
So far, the only ones who have managed to fight the virus in their own regions are Belgium managed to eliminate the infection by creating 350 kilometers of artificial barriers. and Germany, which has contained the epidemic in its eastern regions along the Polish border with massive investments and 3,500 km of barriers.
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