Thailand: African swine fever detected from slaughterhouse in in Nakhon Pathom province

African swine fever infection has been detected in Thailand as the officials announced on Tuesday. As per the reports of the Bangkok Post, the officials in the slaughterhouse of central Nakhon Pathom province found the African swine fever infection in a surface swab sample taken at the slaughterhouse, which is the country's first case of the disease. The Department of Livestock Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives announced that one sample out of 309 collected at pig farms and slaughterhouses tested positive for African swine fever, prompting the government to send experts to the country to trace the source of the animal disease and prevent the virus from spreading.

Soravit Thaneeto, who is the director-general of the Department of Livestock Development stated that the Thai authorities will report the discovery to the World Organization for Animal Health, according to Bangkok Post. He also stated that within a 5-kilometre radius of where the sample was discovered, authorities will establish a disease epidemic zone, restrict pig movements, consider culling suspected infecetd animals and compensate affected farmers.

Sorravis track out the disease's origins

Sorravis Thaneto said that out of 309 samples collected, one had tested positive for African swine fever, including blood samples from pigs at 10 farms and surface swabs from two slaughterhouses in swine-raising districts, according to the Bangkok Post. He has vowed to track out the disease's origins.

Authorities had denied a local epidemic of the lethal disease that has swept through Europe and Asia in recent years, killing hundreds of millions of pigs, for years and attributed most of the pig deaths to another similar disease, the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. However, Sorravis received a letter from the Thailand Veterinary Dean Consortium in December advising him of the presence of African swine fever in a pig corpse.

5,000 farmers yet to be reimbursed

On Tuesday, the government approved the compensation of 574 million baht for smallholder farms in 56 provinces where pigs were slaughtered last year to prevent African swine fever and other viral pig infections, according to the Bangkok Post. The government official suggested that around 5,000 farmers have yet to be reimbursed for the more than 159,000 pigs slaughtered between March and October last year.

(Inputs from ANI)

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