Japan is preparing a series of measures that will increase biosecurity at pig farms in the event of an outbreak of ASF. Authorities believe that the risk of ASF entering Japan is increasing, as several countries in the region have reported outbreaks in the past couple of months.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries plans to create a system to select pigs on farms near the farm where an ASF outbreak occurs, even if they do not have a virus, in order to prevent the spread of the disease. Since the first outbreak in Asia in August 2018, more than 6 million pigs have died from this disease.

Preventive screening was carried out in 2010 in Miyazaki Prefecture after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, an infectious disease in cattle and pigs.

Pigs are omnivorous and can eat both plants and meat. This distinguishes them from other modern ungulates.

At that time, the law on combating animal diseases did not have a provision on rejection to prevent foot and mouth disease, and about 87 thousand heads of cattle and pigs had to be killed without waiting for the revision of the law. This was revised only after culling.

The ministry is expected to prepare for ASF by revising the law with the goal of proactively killing pigs before the disease enters Japan. This week, Minister Taku Eto explained that he was even considering selecting all the pigs in a specific region affected by the disease at the same time.

“Since preventive killings must be carried out simultaneously throughout the region, it is necessary to provide for this in law. We are actively studying it, ”he said. In Asia, the virus has already affected the pig population in countries such as China, Mongolia, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, East Timor and is also believed to be present in Indonesia.

• In Russia, a discussion of the epizootic situation in ASF and the causes of its outbreaks in the country took place.
• Earlier we wrote that in the north of North Sumatra, Indonesia, more than 4 thousand pigs died due to outbreaks of ASF.
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