Plague on pigs' heads, or there will be no Sal!
Troubles, hardships and deprivations do not want to leave Ukraine alone. In addition to other misfortunes, since the beginning of the year, an epizootic has been flaring up in the country - African swine fever (ASF), expanding its geography. The main national product and symbol called SALO is threatened, if not with complete disappearance, then with shortages and accompanying speculative prices at a minimum.
Since the beginning of the year, the sanitary and veterinary services of Ukraine have already recorded more than fifty cases of mass animal disease. It would seem that, against the backdrop of last year’s 91 ASF outbreaks, the current losses are just minor troubles. However, if we consider that last year’s infection affected exclusively domestic pig farming, and the current one has escaped beyond households and has already begun to kill pigs in agricultural enterprises, as well as wild boars, the fifty outbreaks registered are just the beginning of a much larger swine epidemic.
The country's State Consumer Service is forced to admit that the dynamics of the spread of African swine fever in Ukraine is threatening.
ASF cannot be treated or vaccinated in animals. It is possible to stop the spread of the disease only if veterinary and sanitary standards are strictly followed. However, pig farmers, in pursuit of cheap products, often feed their livestock untested feed and violate the rules for the disposal of biological waste.
Gaps in legislation also open the door to infection. The amount of penalties for violation of veterinary and sanitary rules is scanty, which does not encourage the industry to comply with them. Among other things, veterinary and food supervision do not have the appropriate authority to check the accompanying documentation for the transportation of animals. The measures taken by regulatory authorities on pork producers are predominantly advisory in nature.
According to the State Food and Consumer Service, since 2012, when ASF first appeared on the territory of Nezalezhnaya, more than two hundred cases of highly contagious (i.e., having a high degree of infection) viral infection of pigs have been registered in 23 regions. ASF poses no danger to humans, but causes serious damage to agriculture.
When a source of swine fever infection is identified, sick pigs must be slaughtered using a bloodless method, and all animals within a radius of 20 kilometers from the source must be eliminated.
Sick animals and those in contact with sick animals are subject to slaughter, followed by burning of the corpses. Direct and indirect losses from African swine fever over five years are estimated at 200 million hryvnia. If the current trend towards the spread of ASF continues, these losses could increase to five billion hryvnia, and the pig population in Ukraine will be reduced by 1,5 million heads.
ASF affected the Kherson region more than other regions of Ukraine. Things are so bad that the Kherson Regional State Administration had to create a State Emergency Epizootic Commission to adopt and implement a set of sanitary measures in disadvantaged areas of the region.
A rather interesting situation is emerging. Local reports are reporting that homemade lard has practically disappeared from meat counters in the markets of the Kherson region, and what is sold has risen in price by a third since the beginning of March. Sellers explain: lard is no longer imported from household suppliers, although there is no shortage of regular pork. The rise in prices and the lack of lard are associated with the quarantine introduced in the region with the onset of ASF. But a week ago, the authorities lifted the quarantine, replacing it with a ban on the sale of any domestic pork.
If previously villagers registered pigs and received a certificate from a veterinarian before slaughter, then after the outbreak of African swine fever, the entire ritual must be completed after the birth of the livestock.
The villagers are indignant and demand the abolition of the new rules, but the veterinary inspectors tell them that all these rules existed before, but until the swine infection appeared, they were not observed very strictly. Citizens are asked not to worry: there will be pork, and prices will not rise, since the shortage will be compensated by meat supplies from large farms.
Thus: ASF is raging, breaking out of households into the wild and slowly approaching large livestock complexes. The Kherson authorities, having not defeated the epizootic, either introduce quarantine or lift it, create commissions that put a paper barrier from certificates on the path of contaminated meat to the counter.
In other regions of Ukraine, outbreaks of African plague were extinguished within a month only thanks to strict quarantine measures. But outbreaks of African plague, identified since the beginning of the year in the Kherson region, have already grown into an epizootic that has engulfed six districts of the region, which has no intention of stopping.
Small farms and market trade are suffering losses and are not going to put up with the disregard for them on the part of the Regional State Administration, headed by the local governor Gordeev.
On March 20, a group of activists blocked traffic on one of the busy streets of Kherson and threatened to block the Antonovsky Bridge across the Dnieper if their demands were ignored.
On March 21, those gathered at the Kherson Regional State Administration demanded a personal report from Gordeev, but the big boss did not condescend to some villagers and meat traders. Governor Gordeev has much more important national economic tasks: to attend military exercises of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, make fiery patriotic speeches and prepare to repel “Russian aggression.”
While Gordeev is using a tape measure to measure the depth of trenches on the border with Crimea and take samples of boiler feed, the Kherson region is on the international “black list” of suppliers of contaminated agricultural products. Belarus, which over the past three years has become the main consumer of Ukrainian pork and meat products, has imposed restrictions due to ASF on the supply of all pork, including cat and dog food, from the Kherson region.
Statistics say that the volume of pork exports from Ukraine in 2016 amounted to a pitiful 3,2 thousand tons worth $5,1 million. This is 8,5 times less than supply volumes and 10,7 times less than pre-Maidan 2013 revenue.
But Ukrainian livestock farming is not the only one affected by ASF. Since November 2016, outbreaks of bird flu have been registered in Ukraine, and in the Kherson region in particular. The cherished export of poultry meat to the EU has been shut down, and Hong Kong has also refused to import Ukrainian table eggs.
It seems that the Kherson and Kyiv authorities are not at all interested in replenishing the budget, the food security of the country, not to mention preserving the face of the “agricultural superpower”. Controlling organizations, public figures and activists raised their voices, drawing the attention of authorities at all levels to violations of sanitary standards and livestock breeding rules in the Kherson region, but the scale of the disaster speaks for itself - the Maidan temporary workers are not trained to think like statesmen.
The Ukrainian pork epizootic threatens not only local livestock farming, but also the recovering agricultural industry of Crimea. Lard is not a weapon. You can’t search every suitcase or knapsack of a guest because of Perekop. Isolated cases of ASF outbreaks have already been recorded in the republic, which were identified in time and closed by sanitary and police cordons. But who can guarantee that they will not exist in the future?
The only bright spot observed in this pig cataclysm is that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will have less lard rations in three-liter jars - this affordable, tasty and high-calorie grub. And it is unlikely that Poroshenko and Poltorak will spend money on buying Polish lard and pork for their “cannon fodder” - rather, they will feed them plague pork so that the good stuff does not go to waste.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.