The veterinary service of the Angolan province of Bengo has decided to temporarily suspend the sale of pork and its products due to suspected swine fever on two farms where about 100 animals died, it said this Thursday.
The ban was imposed on Monday after the death of about 100 pigs on two neighboring farms in Dande municipality, according to Ana Maria Fita, head of the Bengo provincial veterinary services department.
“The ban we have imposed is not because we have swine fever, but simply because we have a suspicion because on the farm where we went we found no more animals and based on the clinical signs we suspect it is swine fever,” – said the person in charge this Thursday. in Luse’s statements.
Ana Maria Fita explained that after the aforementioned farm was observed to be missing 50 pigs due to the slow death of the animals, another farm reported the death of more than 40 animals, increasing suspicions of plague in the region.
“Therefore, since the virus is spreading rapidly, we have thought of banning it now to prevent it from spreading to other provinces. We are waiting to collect samples from other farms to send to the laboratory,” he stressed.
The ban on the sale of pork and its derivatives in Bengo, a border province of Luanda, Huie and Norte Quanza, also warns other breeders in the region that Bengo is “on guard,” he noted.
In the Angolan municipality of Humpata, Huila province, in the south of the country, laboratory-confirmed cases of swine fever were reported in February, leading to a ban on the sale and consumption of meat in the region.