Veterinary Services department to ban transfer of pigs

The Veterinary Services Department has announced its intends to ban the transfer of pigs from one district to another following reports of an outbreak of Swine fever in parts of the country.

According to the department, data available to them indicates that some pig farms in the Ashanti Region have been affected.

Speaking to Accra-based radio station Citi Fm, the Head of Public Health at the Veterinary Services,  Dr Bashiru Boi Kikimoto said there is also a suspected case in the Greater Accra Region

“Currently with the data we’ve got, there are some 3 districts in the Ashanti Region [that have been] affected most. There is a seemingly suspected case in the Greater Accra Region,”

He mentioned that measures are being put in place to prevent the disease from spreading from one area to other places.

One of the measures, he said, include banning the movement of pigs and pork products from place to another.

“Normally at the outbreak focal point, there’ll be some public health intervention measures to make sure it doesn’t spread from one farm to another or one district to another. The first thing is to ban the movement of pigs from one district to another and also make sure that we enhance security measures which is one of the main things most farmers don’t take into consideration,” he said

He further stated that all the pigs on farms which have been affected by swine fever would have to be killed and their meat destroyed to forestall a possible spread of the disease.

“For this disease, when there’s an outbreak whether the pig is affected or not, all the pigs on the farm have to be slaughtered and disposed of. Because we don’t want the meat to be taken to other places that will