.
A very simple answer, for Britain and Ireland to protect farms from African Swine Fever: stop all imports of live pigs.
The vets will oppose a ban, seeking to continue to profit from exports and imports, and the disease will apparently reach Britain in IIIIM (illegal imaginary infected imported meat).
In the event of ASF arriving in these islands, Britain's vets will once again maraud across England's green and pleasant land exercising their egos and powers at the expense of the people and their animals. They are protected by a weak government.
The claims below about knowing the unknowable, for example the very exact details of how it spreads in illegal importations by travellers, not you notice, legal imports, mirror the highly successful deception campaigns run by British veterinarians over CSF and FMD.
Even the origins as being Southern Africa and the method being ship's garbage are identical to one of the variations the writer fought off in 2000 when interviewed by Sky News during the CSF, Classified Swine Fever disaster. The story was an obvious fabrication, but it persisted and became established "fact."
Britain is still a world leader, influencing the world in the best techniques for veterinary cover-ups. They even reach United Nations agencies.
Oh and the government laboratory at Pirbright, source of one Foot and Mouth outbreak, continues its existence as an insecure laboratory run by incompetents, and protected by Ministers, keeping incidents secret for months. Their international accreditation needs to be withdrawn. Britain can buy cheaper and better science abroad, without the risks of escapes of live viruses to our farms.
The article below, from an influencial source, is a very fair reflection of the full report.
Full Pig Progress article here
Global threat: African Swine Fever spreading
//27 May 2011
Warning of a likely imminent upsurge of a deadly pig disease in the
Caucasus region and Russian Federation, FAO today called on affected countries to step up precautionary measures and for a concerted international effort to prevent the infection spreading more widely across the Northern Hemisphere.
Global threat
"African swine fever is fast becoming a global issue," said Juan
Lubroth, FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer. "It now poses an immediate
threat to Europe and beyond...
...Importantly, there is currently no vaccine for the disease, which is
very often lethal to pigs but is not harmful to humans.
Preventive strategies include quarantine, on-farm security and other
measures aimed at minimizing the risk of ASF being introduced and
becoming established. Early-warning contingency plans include
epidemiological information-gathering, training and awareness
campaigns.
African Swine Fever (ASF) was introduced into Georgia from southern Africa late in 2006, entering through the Black Sea port of Poti, where garbage from a ship was taken to a dump where pigs came to feed. Currently, ASF is spreading northwards at the rate of roughly 350 km a year...
...in the spring of 2011 ASF suddenly appeared in the port of Murmansk, more than 3000 km from southern Russia, and close to the border with Finland. In 2009 it leaped 2000 kilometers to St Petersburg where, however, it appears to have been contained after a relapse at the end of 2010 and again in March 2011.
ASF long-distance jumps are food-borne, with virus surviving in pig meat products taken by travellers. At the destination, food scraps may be fed to pigs, setting off a new outbreak.
The frequency of such jumps is increasing as the originally-infected territory enlarges. The ASF virus strain now spreading is a very aggressive one...
... progress will be difficult as farmers often appear not to be reporting ASF outbreaks for fear of seeing their pigs culled without adequate compensation.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
