AGRICULTURE: COMMISSION RELAXES EMBARGO ON BRITISH PIG TRADE.

• Position: Government Activity - International Pages - Brief Article

The CVP unanimously agreed that the British authorities have taken adequate and sufficient measures to avert any spread of the disease, which is highly contagious for pigs, but harmless for humans. Officially, only five farms have been affected since 8 August and no new cases have been confirmed since 12 August. However, infected animals have been reported at 31 farms, and the ban on the movement and sale of pigs continues to apply as a preventive measure to 35 farms.Systematic slaughter.In the light of this outbreak of Classical Swine Fever, the first in the UK since 1986, the Commission, acting on an Opinion from the SVC, decided on 14 August to ban all exports of live pigs and porcine semen from England until 31 August. In accordance with EU veterinary policy provisions, a 3-kilometre buffer zone and a 10-km surveillance zone have been established around the infected premises, within which all movements of live animals are strictly monitored. 3,500 pigs have been slaughtered in Suffolk and some 16,000 in Southern England. Following an outbreak of swine fever between 1993 and 1995, the Commission strengthened protection measures, though slow implementation meant the disease could not be prevented from spreading to the Netherlands in 1997, and then on to Germany, Spain and Italy the following year.--Although it poses no threat to human health, Classical Swine Fever is a a highly contagious and deadly viral disease. Bearing no relationship with bacterial fevers in human, there are no official records of Swine Fever affecting individuals coming into contact with infected animals or having ingested contaminated meat. It is by contrast a serious economic affliction for the farms concerned. When an outbreak is detected, all animals...