Actions to combat African Swine Fever receive international funds

On November 11th, Tereza Cristina, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, announced she is allocating up to US$ 500,000 to combat African Swine Fever in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, countries where the disease has already been detected. The resources come from the partnership program between Brazil and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for the Promotion of Trilateral South-South Technical Cooperation, managed by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency.

The idea is to develop local tools such as risk assessment and laboratory analysis tools to confirm suspected cases, assist with surveillance activities, and develop educational programs to raise awareness about the disease and improve access to animal health services, especially in countries with large numbers of small-scale pig farmers.

“In view of the threat of African Swine Fever, it is absolutely essential that all international agencies and national governments work together. If each one acts on its own initiative, we will weaken the effectiveness of everyone’s actions, and the losers will be the producers in the affected countries”, said Tereza Cristina, as she participated virtually in the Inter-American Meeting on African Swine Fever. IICA’s Director-General, Manoel Otero, also participated in the event, in addition to representatives from other countries in the Americas.

African Swine Fever (PSA) is a viral disease that poses no risk to human health but can decimate swine farms since it is highly transmissible. In Brazil, the last outbreak of the disease was registered in 1981 and the country was declared PSA-free on December 5, 1984.

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