Over the past month the Vyazemskyi region has recorded the third incidence of African swine fever.

Alexander Medvedev, deputy governor of the Smolensk region gave the keynote address saying that the region has two zones that are at risk.

The controls in these zones include the exclusion of domestic privately owned pigs, which are euthanised in specially designated places and a round-up of livestock susceptible to African Swine Fever.

The authorities are also encouraging the reduction of the numbers of pigs that are held on private farms.

Acting Director of the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia Svetlana Dresvyannikova said that in 2011 and 2012 there were no cases of ASF in the region but since the beginning of the year there had been three incidents.

She said a major feature of the present situation was that now the incidents of ASF are recorded at the Central Federal Register, whereas in the past they had been registered in the regions of the North Caucasus and the Southern federal districts.

This, she said, indicated that the situation with regard to the spread of the disease had become worse.

Nikolai Fyodorov said that the biosecurity on pig farms had to be strengthened and assistance to the private farms that cannot be adequately protected by technical measures needs to be accelerated to prevent the spread of ASF to other pig breeding areas.