compilated by: Sahar Yaghoubi
African swine fever was discovered in a surface swab sample obtained at a slaughterhouse in Nakhon Pathom province on Tuesday, marking the country’s first official confirmation of the illness.
Authorities initiated an investigation over the weekend, after reports that the illness was already decimating Thai pig herds and claims of a cover-up in recent weeks.
Sorravis Thaneto, director-general of the Department of Livestock Development, stated that out of 309 samples gathered, one had tested positive for African swine fever, including blood samples from pigs on 10 farms and surface swabs at two slaughterhouses in swine-raising districts.
“We discovered one sample that tested positive for African swine fever,” Sorravis said at a press conference on Tuesday, vowing to track out the disease’s origins.
The discovery came after Thai officials denied for years that there was a local epidemic of the deadly illness that has ravaged Europe and Asia in recent years, killing hundreds of millions of pigs.
It also came just days after Kasetsart University said that its laboratory had discovered the illness in a deceased pet pig last month, the first case of its kind in Thailand.
Authorities will establish a disease epidemic zone within a five-kilometer (3-mile) radius of where the sample was discovered, restrict pig movements, consider culling diseased animals and compensate affected farms, according to Sorravis.
He also said that Thailand will inform the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) of the disease’s formal detection.
On Tuesday, the government authorized a compensation package worth 574 million baht ($17.15 million) for smallholder farms in 56 provinces where pigs were slaughtered last year to avoid African swine fever and other viral pig infections.
According to a government official, over 5,000 farmers have yet to be reimbursed for the more than 159,000 pigs slaughtered between March and October last year.
($1 = 33.4700 baht)
