Stakeholders of Bauko town in Mountain Province were urged to buy local pork products and warned on the purchase of processed pork meat products from identified countries suspected to be affected by African swine fever virus.
In a municipal advisory from Bauko Mayor Abraham Akilit advised stakeholders to exercise extreme caution in purchasing and consuming processed pork meat products and are advised to only consume processed pork meat products which are sourced from countries other than the above listed countries suspected to be affected by the African Swine Fever virus.
“All resident and non-residents of this municipality is strictly ordered to observe the foregoing provisions of this advisory and further advised to inform their relatives, friends and family living or working overseas to refrain from sending or bringing home as presents all processed pork meat products especially from the countries herein state,” the statement added.
The chief executive reiterated the warning from the Department of Health and FDA on the purchase and consumption of processed pork meat production identified countries suspected to be affected by ASF virus.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reiterates the temporary ban on the importation, distribution and sale of all processed pork meat products from the countries suspected to be affected by the ASF virus this include: China, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Zambia, South Africa, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Mongolia, Moldova, and Belgium.
“While the said virus does not directly affect humans, it can still cause health risk ad economic imbalance thus the need to exert precautionary measures in order to avoid the wide spread of the virus in the municipality,” the advisory read.
African Swine Fever Virus is a double-stranded DNA virus in the Asfarviridae family; it is the causative agent of African swine fever. The virus causes hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in domestic pigs, some isolates can cause death of animals as quickly as week after the infection.