Source: Vincent ter Beek, Vladislav Vorotnikov, Pig Progress, 3 March 2021, photo credit: jobs.ac.uk Career advice
Around 560 000 pigs have been culled on various commercial swine farms in Russia during the colder autumn and winter seasons in an attempt to keep African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks under control.
That number was confirmed by Sergey Yushin, CEO of Russia’s National Meat Association in personal correspondence. He said that this amount corresponds to roughly 2.2% of the total pig inventory in Russia. A large part of the affected farms are located in Tver and Kursk regions. Other areas with large infected farms were Voronezh, Samara and Tambov regions.
ASF cases in Tver region, Russia
Bezhetsky district, Tver region, about 300 km north of Moscow, was 1 of the districts that was hardest hit, with at least 5 large commercial farms infected in November and December. According to data by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), at least 291,000 pigs had to be culled on these 5 facilities. The facilities belong to the Coral group; each had at least about 50,000 pigs on-site.
ASF cases in Kursk region, Russia
A 2nd notable cluster of outbreaks was found in Fatezhsky and Zheleznogorsky districts of Kursk region, about 500 km south of Moscow. Here also, at least 5 commercial farms were hit by ASF in November and December, leading to the depopulation of at least 125,000 pigs. The farms had a size between 10,000 and 38,000 animals.
In addition, in late January 2021, 2 farms with in total over 26,000 pigs in Bondarsky district, Tambov region, had to be depopulated at 500 km south east of Moscow.
The unfortunate chain of events started early October 2020 with the depopulation of a 35,000 head swine farm in Kalacheevsky district, Voronezh region, 750 km south of Moscow. That was followed late October 2020 a farm with 3,300 pigs was found affected in Bogatovsky district in Samara region, which is more than 1,100 km east of Mosco
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