Brazil to strengthen surveillance to prevent African swine fever from entering the country

The Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday that it would intensify surveillance at airports, port terminals and borders to prevent African swine fever (PSA) from entering the country after a series of outbreaks of the disease in recent years. months.

"The concern is that contaminated food and baggage, from the areas affected by the PSA, enter the country without proper supervision," the ministry said in a statement. Cases of PSA have been reported in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Russia.

"The determination is that food coming from countries where foci of the disease have been detected ... are incinerated," the ministry adds.

PSA is a viral disease, non-transmissible to humans, but highly infectious for pigs, which must be killed if diagnosed with the disease, and has been eradicated in Brazil since 1984.

Since the beginning of August, China, the world's largest pig farmer, has reported more than a dozen cases and brought down 40,000 animals.