South American countries unite to prevent entry of African swine fever

Nine South American countries, members of the Andean Community (CAN) and the Permanent Veterinary Committee of the Southern Cone (CVP), have joined forces to prevent African swine fever from entering the region, CAN reported.

The decision was made “before the reintroduction of this virus”On the continent and was endorsed in a joint statement signed by the CAN Secretary General, Jorge Hernando Pedraza, and the CVP president pro tempore, Diego De Freitas.

The agreements of the joint declaration include Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, countries that make up the CAN, and Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, which make up the CVP.

“It is essential that the nations that make up both blocs implement coordinated actions to prevent the presence of this disease, which allows us to be prepared for an eventual emergency situation.”Pedraza said.

He added that the agreements are part of the technical cooperation agreement signed between the two organizations in March 2020 with the aim of maintaining and improving the sanitary status of the nine countries, strengthening the competitiveness of products of animal origin in international trade and prevent the entry of exotic diseases to the region.

In this sense, the agencies agreed to work in a coordinated manner to reinforce sanitary barriers, mainly in ports and airports, as well as to improve the control of passenger luggage from affected areas worldwide and the control of merchandise received by mail.

Also, reinforce surveillance and biosecurity in pig farms, evaluate and strengthen the diagnostic capacity of laboratories, communication between their veterinary services and the training and education of veterinarians, as well as the availability of technical information on official websites.

The CAN reported that African swine fever had not been detected for 40 years in Latin America, but was notified last July by the Dominican Republic to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

The PPA added, “is a highly pathogenic, cross-border, hemorrhagic, infectious exotic disease that affects domestic and wild pigs, with a high contagion rate”.

In that sense, it causes high mortality in these animals and, although it is not transmitted to humans, “generates significant direct and indirect losses throughout the production system and constitutes a barrier to international trade”, Alerted the organism.

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) already warned on October 8 that the presence of African swine fever in America puts food security at risk and requires a regional effort to contain and eradicate it.

IICA, based in San José, Costa Rica, stated that this disease must be dealt with in a coordinated manner in Latin America and the Caribbean, since its appearance in the Dominican Republic and Haiti represents a threat to the food security of the entire region. the livelihoods of small and medium producers.

The disease had been detected for the last time in Cuba in 1971 and 1980, in Brazil and the Dominican Republic in 1978, and in Haiti in 1979. However, last July cases were confirmed in the Dominican Republic and, in September, in Haiti. The two countries share the island of Hispaniola, in the Caribbean Sea.