Work to slaughter pigs completed at swine fever-hit Aichi farms

February 9, 2019

Nagoya--The work to slaughter pigs has been completed at two swine fever-affected farms in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, the prefectural government said Saturday.

Aichi is one of the five prefectures where outbreaks of the disease, also known as hog cholera, were confirmed earlier this month. Of the remaining four prefectures, Nagano, Gifu and Shiga have already completed the slaughtering work, while Osaka is having difficulty achieving its goal to finish the work within Saturday.

Aichi Prefecture initially planned to slaughter a total of some 8,000 pigs at a farm in the city of Toyota that is believed to be the source of the latest outbreaks and an affiliated farm in the city of Tahara. The number of pigs that were actually slaughtered turned out to be around 7,200.

The prefecture plans to complete by Tuesday the work to bury the pigs and sterilize related facilities.

According to the agriculture ministry, the DNA of the swine fever virus detected at the Toyota farm is different from that of the virus found in late January at farms in Gifu, which has been hit by swine fever outbreaks since last year.

Although a same livestock feed delivery truck has been confirmed to have visited the Gifu farms and the farm in Tahara, the different DNA types of the viruses found there suggest that the disease's outbreak in Aichi and that in Gifu in late January were not directly linked with each other. Jiji Press