Page 22 - SAPPO Boardpack l 13 May 2020
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CONSUMER ASSURANCE
Notifiable (Exotic) Diseases
FMD
FMD was reported on several cattle properties outside of the containment
zone late last year (11 in total). The back-tracing indicated that the outbreak
could be linked to cattle illegally moved out of the containment zone and
trade through auctions.
As at end February 97% of the sites identified through backward and forward
tracing exercise have been visited and no more new sites have been
identified outside of the protection zone. Some wild herbivores, including
Buffalo, have been tested and there is no indication that spill over to other
species has occurred.
The ban on gathering of animals was lifted 18 February. There are proposed
th
guidelines and rules being debated as to how Auctions can be made “safer”
from a risk of disease spread point of view. It would seem as if many are
unable/ unwilling to change the way they have sold animals in the past.
ASF
During early March, there was a report of 2 pigs found dead in veldt near
Balfour which had died from ASF. SAPPO visited the site with 2 local state vets
and the Director of Vet services in Mpumalanga, to evaluate the situation.
We spoke to the 3 current pig owners who all denied that the dead pigs came
from their pig pens and they had no idea where the 2 dead pigs had come
from.
In October 2019 there were over 1000 pigs owned by numerous people, at
this stage there are only 3 people who still have pigs numbering in total
approximately 70. None of the pigs were showing any signs of ASF and so no
culling action was done. The local State Vet will monitor the 3 pig holdings on
an ongoing basis and sample any pigs that may die.
We got a sense that due to marketing difficulties the 3 owners wanted their
pigs to be culled as a means of getting some income.
No other cases have been reported in the past 2 months.
A follow up survey in Standerton, Secunda and Balfour area, including
serology, will be conducted later this year.
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