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Households in Svetlahorsk district, Homyel region, ordered to slaughter their hogs

 

Residents in the Svetlahorsk district, Homyel region, have been ordered by local authorities to slaughter their hogs as a precaution against the spread of African swine fever.

While visiting relatives in a village in the district, opposition activist Kanstantsin Zhukowski saw a notice ordering all privately kept hogs culled before August 1. The notice warned that those failing to slaughter their hogs would have them taken away by authorities.

The Svetlahorsk district is far from where cases of the highly contagious virus have been reported. The country's first-ever case of African swine fever was registered in the Iwye district, Hrodna region, in June. An outbreak of the infection was later registered at a large hog farm close to Vitsyebsk. No other cases have been reported by authorities so far.

As Mr. Zhukowski told BelaPAN, local government officials failed to explain clearly why all privately kept hogs had to be culled in the district. "I view the decision as illegal," he said.

Mr. Zhukowski said that he had requested the regional prosecutor's office to conduct an inquiry.

Meanwhile, the administration of the Narowlya district in the Homyel region has made a decision to close down all

farms keeping a small number of hogs and ordered all households residing within five kilometers of a large hog farm in the village of Zavoyts to slaughter their hogs. They are entitled to compensatory payments of 30,000 rubels per kilogram, according to the local government's newspaper Prypyatskaya Prawda. // BelaPAN