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NAGOYA – The swine fever epidemic continues to grow in Japan as local authorities in five central and western prefectures of Japan announced Wednesday that they were struggling to contain the highly contagious pork virus, reported for the first time in September.
"We are facing an extremely serious situation," said Agriculture Minister Takamori Yoshikawa, at a meeting held in his ministry in Tokyo, while asking officials to take protective measures strict. The ministry has also set up a special task force in Gifu Prefecture to intensify containment efforts.
Swine fever virus has recently been detected by prefectural and local authorities on Gifu farms, on farms in Aichi, as well as in Osaka, Shiga and Nagano prefectures.
The disease does not affect humans even though the meat of an infected animal is eaten, but it is deadly to pigs.
The government of Aichi Prefecture has started slaughtering about 6,600 pigs at a Toyota City farm with the help of the land-based self-defense force, while banning shipments from six farms located less than 10 kilometers from the farm.
Toyota's farm has shipped pigs to six facilities in Nagano, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga and Osaka prefectures since January. The ministry did not detect the virus at Mie.
Toyota's farm informed the prefectural government on Monday that its pigs had symptoms of infection, including a loss of appetite, and the prefecture detected the swine fever virus in five pigs the following day. Detailed tests conducted by the state government confirmed the infection on Wednesday.
The Aichi government has announced plans to end slaughter by Saturday and complete elimination and disinfection of the region by Tuesday.
Swine fever was detected at a farm in Gifu City in September. This is the first discovery of this type in Japan since 1992. It has been found in more than 100 wild boars in Gifu and Aichi prefectures.
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