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TOKYO – A pig farm in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, suspected of being at the origin of a growing epidemic of swine cholera, has been allowed to continue to dispatching young pigs even after prefectural veterinary authorities found abnormal conditions in these animals at the end of January, according to the prefect and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Breeding establishments that received pigs from Toyoda Farm, Aichi, were tested positive for porcine cholera. They are located in Japan's central prefectures in Nagano and Gifu and in the western prefectures of Japan, Shiga and Osaka.
The discovery evoked the possibility that a delay in limiting pig movements resulted in the spread of infections over large areas.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and other relevant bodies, the Toyota farm has shipped young pigs to the prefectures of Nagano, Gifu, Shiga and Osaka as well as to the prefecture of Mie, in western Japan. Pigs on Mie Farm gave negative results for cholerogenic pork, while pigs on facilities in the other four prefectures were positive.
According to the prefectural government of Aichi, the Toyota farm reported on February 4 that some of its pigs had a low appetite, which prompted the prefecture 's veterinary authorities to inspect the premises.
But no suspected pork cholera symptoms were found among the establishment's pigs after the officials had measured their body temperature and tested their blood. Some pigs having miscarried, officials have considered the possibility of other diseases.
At that time, the prefectural government did not restrict the movement of pigs, allowing the farm to ship 80 pigs to a farm in Miyada, Nagano Prefecture, at 5 am on February 5th. Two hours later, Aichi officials asked Toyota's farm to: refrain from moving the pigs out of the facility in order to conduct animal testing to see s & # 39; s They had been infected with cholera pork. However, the local body did not ask the farm to bring back the truck with the hogs left for Miyada.
Questions were asked about the government's responses to the problem. "I suppose the national government and the local bodies concerned have not cooperated sufficiently," said one critic.
A government epidemiological research team suspects that the series of infections was caused by food contaminated with the hypoglycemia virus imported to Japan by those who traveled abroad. Contaminated food was then probably consumed by wild boars, who then transmitted the virus to pigs raised on farms, according to many observers.
The national government recommended that the authority of Gifu Prefecture, where the first case of infection was discovered in September, use traps to capture wild boars and install fences to prevent wild boars spread the cholera pork virus.
However, wild boars were infected in the western part of the neighboring Aichi prefecture and infections spread to the Toyota farm, proving that these countermeasures were not effective enough.
— Authorities want to prevent African swine fever from entering Japan
At the same time, Japanese authorities fear that a more virulent form of pork disease that is spreading in China may enter Japan with increasing numbers of visitors from that country during the Lunar New Year holidays until the next day. in mid-February.
African swine fever has a high mortality rate and no vaccine or treatment is available. It is difficult to contain because its viruses spread by mites. "His entry into Japan could have more serious consequences," said a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Since last year, the Japanese authorities in charge of immigration and quarantine have counted eight cases of items contaminated with African swine fever virus prevented from entering Japan. In response to the latest increase in the number of visitors from China, the Japanese government has increased the number of sniffer dogs at major airports. They also used Chinese interpreters to warn tourists that the importation of pork products into Japan was in principle prohibited.
(Text in Japanese by Akiko Kato, Department of Trade Information, Tatsuya Michinaga and Atsuko Ota, Nagoya News Center, and Masakatsu Oka, Gifu Office)
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