Swine Fever Hits Georgian Pigs

Jun 08, 05:43 PM

Current Headlines: International officials in Rome said Friday that the country of Georgia has been hit by the devastating pig disease African Swine Fever.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said the highly contagious viral disease, which is deadly to pigs but does not affect humans, could threaten neighboring countries.

This is a dramatic development in the international distribution of African Swine Fever, which has been almost entirely confined to sub-Saharan Africa since 1990, said Jan Slingenbergh, senior animal health officer with the U.N. agency.

The agency said the disease can be catastrophic to rural livelihoods.

There is no vaccine against African Swine Fever. The only remedy is slaughtering the diseased pigs and any that came in contact with them.

In Georgia, 20,000 of the country's 500,000 pigs have been slaughtered, the U.N. food agency said.

Slingenbergh said Armenia, Azerbaidjan and Russia should be on high alert for the virus.