Dr. Osbil Watson, Cheif Veterinary Officer

AF/1498/21

KINGSTON, Sept. 9 (JIS):

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will be reviving its campaign aimed at educating livestock farmers about the African swine fever (ASF).

The highly contagious and deadly viral disease affects both domestic and feral or wild swine of all ages.

ASF is not a threat to human health and cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans. There is no treatment or vaccine available for this disease, and the only way to stop it is to depopulate all affected or exposed swine herds.

The disease has been detected in the Dominican Republic and the Ministry is putting measures in place to reduce the risk of the virus entering the country.

Speaking at a recent press conference, Portfolio Minister Floyd Green, said that the Ministry has been tracking the disease.

“We’re going to be reinvigorating our African swine fever campaign. We’ve been speaking about it for the last few years… . I’ve said to the team now that African swine fever is in our region [so] we have to re-engage and relaunch that campaign so that people are fully apprised of what they need to be looking out for and what they can do to ensure it doesn’t come to our shores,” he said.

The Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Osbil Watson, will lead the campaign team.

Minister Green said that more details about the campaign will be announced in short order.

Meanwhile, he said the Ministry, in collaboration with various agencies, has been closely monitoring the various diseases that may have a negative impact on the sector.

“We have been training our farmers, we have been indicating what to look out for, we have been meeting with the various associations and doing some simulation. Our technical team, especially Plant Quarantine, the Banana Board, our Veterinary Services Division, they are truly on top of our surveillance and monitoring so that if we see any signs we can act as quickly as possible,” he noted.

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CONTACT: CHRIS PATTERSON, JIS

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