Haiti sees first African swine fever outbreak in 37 years, USDA bans meat products

Haiti on Tuesday, 21 September 2021, recorded its first case of swine flu in 37 years, the World Organisation for Animal Health said in a statement, stressing that the disease has once again caused concerns about the outbreak in the Americas. A Chief Veterinary Officer reported a positive case of African swine fever (ASF) to the World Organisation for Animal Health after a sample was collected from a pig in a province bordering the Dominican Republic and was tested by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratories through a cooperative testing program, USDA said in an official statement on Tuesday. 

According to World Organisation for Animal Health, the human case was first detected in a backyard farm in Anse-à-Pitre, near Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic on August 26, and reports were verified earlier yesterday. The US Department of Agriculture had confirmed African swine fever in samples from pigs in the Dominican Republic in July region's suspecting the region’s first case several years after it was brought under control. 

"USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is committed to assisting both Haiti and the Dominican Republic in dealing with ASF and continues to consult with animal health officials in both countries to support response and mitigation measures," US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a statement on Sept. 21.
 

USDA confirmed Haiti's outbreak last week after testing the samples at the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory on Plum Island in New York, the OIE said. The USDA would issue a statement later on Tuesday.

Warning about the need for “urgent action,” the World Organisation for Animal Health said that the disease had made a resurgence in swine nearly 40 years later. OIE America informed in a release that the Regional Steering Committee of the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs) met with members of the Americas Region to provide more updates on the African swine fever [ASF] disease first detected in the Dominican Republic.

“The great diversity of production and trade systems that currently coexist in the Americas Region pose unique additional challenges when it comes to facing this disease. But the situation does not find us unprepared, as we have been anticipating an event like this for several years now,” Dr. Luis Barcos, OIE Regional Representative for the Americas said in a statement.

OIE coordinating a response to this 'urgent threat'

The panel has been behind critical guidelines on disease prevention, preparedness, and response when the African Swine Flu swept into Asia for the first time in 2018. OIE stressed that there was a need to quickly and effectively coordinate a response to this “urgent threat” as the countries in the Americas Region were put on alert. Dominican Republic has notified the global health experts and leaders through the World Animal Health Information System OIE-WAHIS, the organization said.

USDA, although indicated that the disease ASF is not generally a threat to human health, and cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans and it is not a food safety issue. But the USDA was working to stop the disease from entering the US by prohibiting the pork products from Haiti and the Dominican Republic as it warned the Department of Homeland Security’s US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the US swine industry.

Expressing concern about the reoccurrence of ASF after years of living free from the disease, the OIE said, that further investigations are ongoing “to determine how the virus entered the country, several measures are already in place to halt its further spread.” An Emergency Management Regional Team has also been established to closely monitor the situation and support the affected and neighbouring countries in the upcoming days, under the GF-TADs leadership, World Organisation for Animal Health informed.