Govt to lift ban on Pig movement in Lusaka

The outbreak of the fever prompted the Department of Veterinary Services to ban the slaughter of pigs at Abattoirs within Lusaka Province and the setting up of bio-security check points at Kafue Bridge, West Wood police, Kabangwe police and Nkalamabwe.

Agriculture and Livestock Deputy Minister, Luxon Kazabu, has told QFM News that government will in the next two weeks allow pig farmers to restock their farms.

Mr. Kazabu says preliminary estimates have indicated that eleven thousand (11,000) pigs were affected by the disease on fourteen farms and another fourteen thousand animals from areas near the affected farms were at risk of contracting the disease.

He says government had targeted to slaughter twenty five pigs from the affected farms in order to eradicate the disease since there is no cure or preventive vaccine for the disease and that all the affected farmers are scheduled to be compensated.

This is the third time African swine fever has been found in Zambia in recent years with the last outbreak recorded in 2004. The first outbreak was reported in 1994.

African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease that could kill 95 to 100 percent of affected pigs.

QFM