MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

African swine fever outbreak in southern Russia: 12.000 pigs to be culled

The origin of the outbreak of the highly contagious pork disease in yet unknown

A state of emergency has been imposed in a district in the Krasnodar Region in south Russia amid a major out-break of the African swine fever, the regional emergencies centre announced Sunday.

The emergencies centre told local reporters that the African swine fever virus (ASFV) was found in a private farm where 15 pigs died of the disease, but the source of the infection is still unclear.

Local authorities said some 12,000 pigs in and around the Krylovskaya village, some three kilometres away from the private farm, are being culled, 50 of which have already died of the ASFV in recent days.

Last April Russian regional emergency officials had temporarily declared a state of emergency in the Labinsky district in the region, as the ASFV was found at a livestock farm. 85 pigs were culled at the farm.

Swine fever affects both wild and domesticated animals, which contract the disease from contact with sick animals. The virus does not affect humans