New Swine Fever Case Suspected in Central Japan

November 16, 2018

Tokyo--Japan's agriculture ministry said on Friday that two pigs at a livestock and park facility in the central city of Gifu have tested positive for swine fever, two months after the first domestic case of infection with the disease in 26 years was found at a hog farm in the city.

The Gifu prefectural government culled 23 pigs at the facility.

The positive result came in a genetic test conducted on the two pigs by the prefecture following a report from the facility on Thursday that the animals appeared to be ill, according to officials of the ministry.

A state-affiliated institute will conduct a detailed genetic test on the pigs to make a final diagnosis.

With the livestock and park facility only 8 kilometers away from the farm where the outbreak of the disease, also known as hog cholera, occurred in September, the institute will check whether the swine fever viruses in the two cases are the same type.

The ministry will ban the transportation of pigs within 3 to 10 kilometers of the facility from the area to prevent any spread of the disease, which also infects boars.

In the area, eight livestock facilities have a total of about 8,500 pigs and boars.

At the facility where the latest case was found, visitors can feed and interact with animals.

Before the outbreak in September, pigs at the facility had been raised outdoors. But after the case, they were kept indoors away from visitors.

According to the ministry, humans will not be affected even if they touch pigs or boars infected with the disease, or eat their meat. In Gifu Prefecture, infections were spreading among wild boars recently.

Agriculture minister Takamori Yoshikawa told a press conference in Tokyo on Friday that the government will take thorough measures to prevent the disease from spreading.

He also showed an intention to speed up work to identify the infection route. Jiji Press