Food may have caused Okinawa swine fever: Panel

January 23, 2020

Tokyo--Pigs in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa were possibly infected with classical swine fever via food, an expert panel of the agricultural ministry said Thursday.

According to the panel, leftovers, including pork infected with CSF in the central prefecture of Gifu and other areas in the Honshu main island, may have caused an outbreak of the disease in Okinawa.

A genetic analysis conducted by the panel found that the gene type of CSF in Okinawa was similar to that in Gifu and was not brought from abroad.

CSF-infected pork remains infectious for a while even after being processed into meat products.

The farm where the first CSF case was confirmed in Okinawa fed pigs with unheated leftovers that were provided by restaurants and supermarkets.