Veterinary office tightens rules to counter swine fever spread

A ban on keeping domestic pigs has been ordered by the state veterinary service in a bid to prevent the spread of the highly infectious African swine fever.

The ban applies to a high risk area of the Zlín region where the battle to contain the infection spreading from the wild boar population has been raging for the past four months. In addition, the state office has tightened its rules for the transport of pigs across the region.

The tightened rules have been ordered because of the risk of the disease spreading as wild boars usually migrate in the late autumn.

The veterinary office said that in spite of a cull on wild boar in the affected area, 15 new cases of the fever have been found in dead animals since the start of November. Once of the chief concerns is that the fever could spread to commercial pig farms in the pork eating country.