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El Salvador bans the importation of pigs for Swine Flu in Guatemala
By Agency EFE - 1 day ago
San Salvador, Nov 19 (EFE) .- The Salvadoran government has temporarily banned imports of pigs from Guatemala and all of its products, due to an outbreak of classical swine fever in the neighboring country, officials said.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) told Efe that since "last week banned the import of pigs from Guatemala due to an outbreak of swine fever" in that country.
He said "the measure was taken since Guatemala reported the problem and to prevent an outbreak in the country", although not specifically the day.
Meanwhile, the MAG, through a newsletter, noted that it is following up on farms in the last 45 days Guatemala imported pigs to prevent the plague from spreading to the country.
However, he clarified that to date have not "found evidence of suspected cases of CSF within the research."
The MAG invited all pork producers to "increase biosecurity measures" in this Central American country to prevent an outbreak of classical swine fever, a disease restrictive to market the products of that species.
The president of the Salvadoran Association of Pork (Asporc), Federico Fern?ndez, told local media, stated that "In El Salvador there have been no outbreaks of classical swine fever for more than four years."
He said it is a disease that only affects pigs, which is not contagious to humans or other animals.
Also in Honduras since last Monday closed the border to beef and pork from Guatemala for the same cause.