Cambodia: Pig Deaths Due to Blue Ear Spread Through 3 Provinces

[tetano]

Animal health authorities are trying to learn what has killed nearly
200 pigs in 3 separate provinces. An unknown number of pigs have died
in the provinces of Battambang and Kampong Cham, while nearly 150
have perished in the southern province of Kampot.

Health officials said the disease appears to be bacterial, making an
outbreak of H1N1, sometimes called swine flu, unlikely.

On Monday [2 Aug 2010], officials began blood tests of pigs in
Kampot, where the latest and most severe outbreak has occurred.

"On Saturday [1 Aug 2010], we started the blood tests on 7 pigs," Kao
Phal, director of the animal health department of the Ministry of
Agriculture, said Monday [2 Aug 2010]. "But until now we do not know
exactly the disease that happened to the pigs is."

The animal health department is also appealing to farmers not to
transport any pigs from their farms to market for the rest of the
month of August [2010], he said.

[Byline: Heng Reaksmey]


http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,83954

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Cambodia: Mystery Pig Deaths Spread Through 3 Provinces

Re: Cambodia: Mystery Pig Deaths Spread Through 3 Provinces

Health officials to meet on epidemic of blue-ear in pigs
Wednesday, 04 August 2010 15:02 Tep Nimol and David Boyle .


AGRICULTURE officials plan to hold an emergency meeting today to discuss an epidemic spreading through the Kingdom?s swine population that some officials have blamed on infected Vietnamese pigs they say have been dumped illegally on the Cambodian market.

Sourn San, director of the Animal Health Research Institute at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said yesterday that 80 blood tests conducted last week had revealed an unprecedented epidemic of pig diarrhoea and blue-ear.

?The disease is caused by an untreatable virus and expert officials can only cure some secondary diseases which those pigs have,? he said. The epidemic had coincided with similar outbreaks in China, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, he said.

Mey Yeoun, deputy director of the Svay Rieng provincial Department of Agriculture, said diseased Vietnamese pigs, smuggled into Cambodia at night, were causing the outbreaks.

?Vietnam has been rushing to export a lot of sick pigs to Cambodia for the unusually cheap price of only 3,000 riels [US$0.71] per kilogram of live pig, down from 8,000 riels per kilogram before,? he said. ?They are trying to export their pigs to Cambodia before those pigs are killed by the Vietnamese government.?

He said the pig diarrhoea could spread to humans if meat was not cooked well.

Curtis Hundley, chief of party at USAID?s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise agency, said pigs imported into Cambodia from Vietnam and Thailand were not subjected to the same standard as checks applied to Cambodian pigs exported in the other direction.

?It starts with the illegal import of piglets. It is procedures at the border. They don?t check the pigs,? he said.

In a letter last week, Kao Phal, director of the Department of Animal Health and Production, called for a temporary ban on pig imports and announced today?s emergency meeting with agricultural officials from every province. ?The disease is infectious, and Cambodia may have caught up with it through the import of pigs from other countries,? the letter said.

Yeam Chansophorn, director of Battambang?s provincial Agriculture Department, warned that villagers rushing to offload their infected swine for low prices had created serious health hazards.

?According to the animal health law, sick and dead animals cannot be sold for consumption, but many villagers have eaten those sick and dead pigs.?

Significant outbreaks of pig diarrhoea and blue-ear, or Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, have so far been reported in Battambang, Kampong Chhnang, Prey Veng, Kampong Cham, Svay Rieng, Takeo, Kandal and Kampot provinces.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index....-to-meet-on-epidemic-of-blue-ear-in-pigs.html

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Cambodia: Mystery Pig Deaths Spread Through 3 Provinces

Re: Cambodia: Mystery Pig Deaths Spread Through 3 Provinces

Blue-ear: Pig farms in Takeo disinfected
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:02 Phak Seangly .
Blue-ear

TAKEO provincial authorities said yesterday that more than 170 pig farms in the province had been treated with disinfectant designed to stop the spread of blue-ear after an outbreak of the disease led Prime Minister Hun Sen to ban pig imports last week.

Thai Ly, chief of Takeo?s office of animal health care and production, said farms in three districts ? Trang, Kirivong and Daun Keo ? had been treated as part of an effort that would cover the entire province. Farmers and pork sellers have been instructed to use disinfectant soap themselves, he said.

Nhek Prong, chief of Takeo?s agriculture department, said approximately 600 pigs in the province had died since the outbreak began, with 1,000 more showing symptoms.

Blue-ear, or porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, has so far been reported in eight provinces. Concerns about the disease?s spread in the Kingdom emerged in May, when Svay Rieng provincial Governor Chheang Am banned pig imports from Vietnam. Hun Sen ordered a nationwide suspension of pig imports last week.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index..../blue-ear-pig-farms-in-takeo-disinfected.html