Japan guidelines revised for swine fever vaccinations

October 15, 2019

Tokyo--Japan's disease prevention guidelines were revised Tuesday to allow preventive vaccinations for swine fever to be given to pigs in the country, agriculture minister Taku Eto said the same day.

Vaccinations are expected to start as early as this month in Gifu, Gunma and eight other prefectures where pigs at farms or wild boars have tested positive for swine fever.

Under the revised guidelines, these prefectures will be designated as areas with high risk of swine fever transmission from wild boars to pigs where vaccinations are recommended. Whether to vaccinate will be decided by the governors of the designated prefectures.

These prefectures will vaccinate local pigs after devising plans on when the vaccinations would be given and how much vaccine would be used.

The agriculture ministry will not allow in principle vaccinations in prefectures that have not seen cases of outbreaks but have requested vaccination permits, such as Tochigi, due to fears that new cases of infections will not be tracked as vaccinated pigs will become indistinguishable from infected ones.

"We'll review (the designation of vaccination-recommended areas) as needed," Eto told a press conference. Jiji Press