Another 307 commercial pig holdings in East Anglia have today been released from area movement restrictions put in place following outbreaks of classical swine fever.
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The last Infected Area on the Norfolk/Suffolk border was reduced at 9.15pm today. A new smaller Infected Area was declared in South Norfolk where the last case of classical swine fever was confirmed on the 3rd November. There are no commercial pig farms with pigs left in this new Infected Area, however a few pet pigs remain under movement restrictions.
Individual restrictions remain on the 16 farms where classical swine fever was confirmed and the 39 farms where pigs were slaughtered as dangerous contacts and on farms where investigations are still continuing.
Baroness Hayman Animal Health Minister today said:
“I know that the lifting of movement restrictions from pig farms in East Anglia will come as an enormous relief to many farmers after the overwhelming problems of the last four months.
“Although virtually all the Infected Areas have now been lifted this is not the end of the story; for many of those who have been caught up in this outbreak of classical swine fever this is merely the beginning as they start to rebuild their businesses. For MAFF staff there is much more work to do in administration, cleansing and disinfection.
“We had not had an outbreak of classical swine fever in this country since 1986. Over the next few weeks we are looking to work with the industry to consider the lessons to be learned from the last few months.
“We would urge farmers to remain vigilant for any possible signs of classical swine fever and to continue to observe thorough cleansing and disinfection procedures.”
For a list of previous articles regarding Swine Fever in the UK, click here
Notes for Editors
1. Classical Swine Fever is a highly infectious and contagious viral disease of pigs and can result in high mortality rates.
2. More information on classical swine fever and action taken by MAFF can be found on the MAFF website. However the above changes cannot be incorporated immediately.
The address is: http://www.maff.gov.uk/animalh/stats/csf/default.htm
