Reggie Ngcobo, spokesperson of the department, says about 50 pigs have died in five  rural villages in the Amathole district. This is the first outbreak in three years in this province with most recent cases that were reported in the Free State, North West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga. He says the department is investigating the deaths, and a post-mortem on the pigs is underway. African swine fever is a highly contagious disease, resulting in the death of infected pigs. This does not endanger people at all. OFM News' Christal-Lize Muller spoke to him...

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Ngcobo says control measures are now being applied to separate remaining pigs from infected pigs. State veterinarians are also working hard to raise awareness among pig owners. This includes providing facts about the disease with the emphasis on the clinical signs of the disease in the animals  These signs include animals bleeding on the skin and difficulty breathing. It is also made clear that there are no vaccine for infected animals who will die of the disease.  These campaigns will continue in the villages with a lot of emphasis, in particular that pig owners should not move their pigs to different areas and isolate them. Veterinary services are also in the process to establish if there were any deaths from pigs in addition to the 50 that had already died. At this stage, the department is not considering controlled slaughter.

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