MYANMAR – Blue Ear Spreads to South-East Burma – June 17, 2011

MYANMAR – Porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome (PRRS; Blue ear) has spread to the Irrawaddy region on Mon State.

The PRRS virus continues to spread, reports Mizzima. It has now reached the southern Irrawaddy Region and into Mon State in southeast Burma.

So far, six regions or states have reported outbreaks of the disease, according to the Rangoon Region Animal Husbandry and Veterinarian Department.

The virus has spread so widely due to ineffective bans on the transportation of pigs, veterinarians said.

Early this month, the Animal Husbandry and Veterinarian Department banned transporting pigs and pork into Rangoon Region.

The disease, which affects the reproductive organs and respiratory tract, was first found in the Mandalay area in February and has spread to Naypyitaw, Magway, Pegu, Rangoon, Irrawaddy and Mon states.

In early May, pathologists from the Veterinarian Institute in Thailand, who are researching the disease, visited Burma to make observations in the affected areas and offer suggestions to prevent and control the spread of disease.

Blue ear pig disease has spread to the Irrawaddy Region and Mon State in spite of the Burmese government’s efforts to contain the virus. In early May, although the Rangoon Region banned transporting pigs and pork from the Pegu Region, transporting pigs and pork from the Irrawaddy Region was allowed.

Rangoon Region authorities have ordered meat shops in Rangoon not to sell infected pork and said that violators would be punished. Meanwhile, the price of pork has dropped by half.

A pork butcher at Thingangyun market told Mizzima: “Earlier, the price of pork thigh was 6,000 kyat (about US$8) per viss (1 viss = 1.6kg) but many people bought it. Now the price is just 3,500 kyat but people don’t want to buy it.

“To show that the pork in my shop is not infected, I hung pig heads and ears in front of my shop.”

A veterinarian said that the blue pig ear disease had spread from China to Burma, while another source noted that pig traders usually export pigs from Mandalay to China.

Blue spots often appear on the ears and skins of infected pigs. Because of the virus, some blood vessels of the infected pigs are broken and the blood cannot circulate to some parts of a pig including the ears. First, red spots appear and then they turn blue, according to the Animal Husbandry and Veterinarian Department.

When the disease affects the reproductive organs, sows may abort or they give birth to dead or disabled piglets. When the disease affects respiratory tracts, pigs will lose their appetite, wither, run a temperature and have dripping noses and coughs, according to the department. The blue ear pig virus infection rate is more than 50 per cent.

Starting in February, state-run newspapers have periodically run articles on how to prevent the disease and authorities have launched a public awareness campaign in some townships.

On the other hand, an editor of a Rangoon-based journal told Mizzima that the government’s public awareness campaign should also be conducted in villages and in rural areas.

He said: “If they hear that the disease has spread to a ward, they will conduct an awareness campaign without enthusiasm only in the neighbouring wards. It’s not effective.

“The disease has spread for a long time. They know that it is out of control. So, they should go to villages and townships in states and regions to talk directly with people in the areas. Advising people in only some areas is not enough. Some people do not read state-run newspapers,” he said.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

NEW ZEALAND – Pork Consumers Don’t Want Biosecurity Relaxed – June 14, 2011

NEW ZEALAND – A survey commissed by the Pork Industry Board shows four out of five consumers believe biosecurity controls on imported pork should not be relaxed.

The survey of about 1,000 people conducted in April, found only about one-third of consumers know where the pork they buy comes from, according to Radio New Zealand News.

The industry is in a legal battle with the Ministry of Agriculture over new standards allowing limited imports of fresh uncooked pork from countries that have the disease Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).

Last month, the High Court in Wellington continued an order granting New Zealand Pork interim relief to prohibit importation of uncooked pork while the matter is before the courts.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

AUSTRALIA – No Raw Meat to Enter Australia Without Quarantine – May 25, 2011

AUSTRALIA – The Australian pork industry believes it’s the real target of an international push to export raw pig meat to New Zealand.

According to ABC, the New Zealand Government will allow imports of meat from countries affected by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, also known as ‘pig AIDS’, a disease that causes severe immune suppression in piglets.

The Australian Government says no raw meat will enter Australia without passing through strict quarantine, but the local industry and several Senators are concerned.

Andrew Spencer, from Australian Pork Limited, says New Zealand’s decision will be used as a precedent.

“We are a much larger market than New Zealand,” he said.

“They can now reference the decision that’s made in New Zealand back through a variety processes if they want to, but in particular back through the World Trade Organisation, and say if it’s good enough for New Zealand, it should be good enough for Australia.

“And of course that’s not true.”

Information ThePigSite News Desk

MYANMAR – Authorities Ban Transport of Pigs and Pork from Pegu – May 24, 2011

MYANMAR – Because of the blue ear pig virus, also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), authorities have banned transporting pigs and pork from Pegu Region, according to the Rangoon Region Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department.

Checkpoints in Hlegu (45 km northeast of Rangoon) and Htandapin are stopping trucks to inspect their animal cargo.

“The blue ear pig virus can spread very rapidly so we are examining the vehicles which enter Rangoon,” an official with the Rangoon Region Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department told Mizzima.

According to Dr Nay Soe, an official from the Taungoo Township Animal Husbandry and Veterinarian Department, blue ear pig epidemic has spread to 15 wards and 18 villages in Taungoo Township and 79 pigs have died and 294 pigs have been infected since May 16.

An official from Tamwe Market in Tamwe Township in Rangoon, told Mizzima that despite the ban, the price of pork in Rangoon had not changed.

The symptoms of the disease are exhaustion, high fever, loss of appetite and the colour of an infected pig’s ears turn blue. An infected pig with blue ear should be burned and buried in a deep pit, authorities said.

Although blue ear, pig plague and pig diarrhea diseases cannot spread to humans through consumption of an infected pig, the selling and transporting of infected pigs have been banned by the authorities.

The ban on carrying pigs and pork will be eased only after the spread of the disease is under control. The Rangoon Region relies on the Irrawaddy Region for pork, according to officials.

Meanwhile, in Pegu Region, authorities led by Pegu Region Chief Minister Nyan Win have launched a public awareness campaign and done prevention work in towns and surrounding rural areas. Pig farm owners are told how the virus spreads and how to prevent and control the disease.

The disease, which affects the reproductive organs and respiratory tract, was first found in Mandalay Division on 15 February. Later, it spread to Sagaing Region, Naypyitaw and Magway Region.

The animal husbandry department is trying to import medicine to treat the disease, and scientists from foreign countries have arrived in Burma to produce the medicine here, according to the department in Naypyitaw.

The blue ear pig virus was first detected in the US in 1987 and was found in Germany, Spain, Netherlands, France, England and Canada during 1990-1995. In Asia, the virus was found in China in 2006, Viet Nam and Philippines in 2007, and Thailand in 2008. It was reported in Mandalay in early February.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

NEW ZEALAND – Pig Farmers Take Action Over Raw Pork Imports – May 16, 2011

NEW ZEALAND – Pig farmers are fighting an 11th-hour battle against new Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) import health standards.

The standards allow for limited imports of fresh uncooked pork from countries that have the disease porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

Industry board New Zealand Pork went to the High Court in Wellington today to seek an interim order for a review of the standards.

The board said it feared the standards could increase the risk of the disease entering New Zealand.

Pork from countries with PRRS must undergo treatment to deactivate the disease, reports 3news.co.nz.

Biosecurity officials originally proposed rules last year that would allow imports of consumer-ready cuts of uncooked pork from Canada, Europe, Mexico and the United States, but were advised by a review panel to look at 29 deficiencies, including their import risk assessment.

But last month MAF said it had issued updates to those four import health standards for pig meat, pig meat products and by-products which would effectively manage the risk of introducing PRRS to New Zealand.

It said imports of fresh uncooked pork would be restricted to cuts smaller than 3kg that had the lymph nodes removed.

MAF’s deputy director-general for standards, Carol Barnao, said “the likelihood of the virus being introduced through the importation of uncooked pork would be equivalent to an average of one outbreak per 1227 years.”

But NZ Pork – which represents 360 farmers who produce 46,000 tonnes of pork a year – has said that if fresh cuts are imported PRRS will enter New Zealand within three to five years. It is worried that pork offcuts could end up in food scraps fed to pigs, such the thousands of “backyard pigs” kept outside mainstream farming.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

MYANMAR – PRRS Spreads to Myanmar’s Bago Region – May 12, 2011

MYANMAR – Blue ear disease, medically known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), has been found infected with pigs in Myanmar’s Bago region, local media reported yesterday.

Bago region stands the third to which the blue ear disease spread after the second largest city of Mandalay in March and the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw in April.

As part of biosecurity measure, the authorities have blocked pigs from being transported to Yangon region from Bago’s for sale following the discovery, said the Popular News.

Vehicles carrying pigs from the Bago region are stopped and sent back by the authorities at the terminal bordering Yangon’s Hlegu and Taikkyi with Bago region.

PRRS was first reported in Mandalay in early March when over 500 heads of pig died of the disease. The 500 pigs were among the 2,000 bred in 200 poultry farms in five townships in Mandalay, according to the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department.

Some pigs in poultry farms in two townships in Nay Pyi Taw – Zeyarthiri and Popathiri – were later found also dying of PRRS disease.

Experts of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are carrying out test for PRRS disease and vaccine for PRRS will be produced domestically for the disease prevention, according to the department.

So far, the disease, detected from the dead pigs, has not spread to other animals or human but infect other pigs, it said.

There is a total of 9.3 million pigs in the country and about 100,000 pigs are in Nay Pyi Taw.

The blue ear disease was the second that spread in Myanmar so far this year after avian influenza (H5N1) which struck Sittway, western Rakhine state and Tantsle township, northwestern Sagaing region in the first two months of this year respectively and thousands of chickens, suspected of carrying virulent avian influenza, were wiped out following the discovery of their unusual death.

Myanmar was first struck by bird flu H5N1 in 2006.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

MYANMAR – PRRS Disease Reported in Naypyitaw Pig Farms – April 27, 2011

MYANMAR – An outbreak of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) was reported in Naypyitaw in early April, according to the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department.

The Naypyitaw District Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department is educating the public about the disease which causes reproductive failure in breeding stock and respiratory tract illness in pigs.

On 7 April, 100 pigs out of a total of more than 300 pigs at two pig farms in Pobba Thiri and Zabu Thiri townships in Naypyidaw were infected with the disease. Ten pigs died. On 11 April, the pigs were diagnosed with PRRS. Authorities say there is no treatment for the disease and no prophylactic.

There are an estimated 100,000 pigs in Naypyitaw, according to the Health Department.

Similarly, in March the disease was reported in Aungmyetharsan, Chanayetharsan, Mahaaungmye, Chanmyatharsi, Pyigyitagun, Amarapura and Madaya in the Mandalay Region where more than 1,000 pigs died of the disease.

Dr Tun Myint Soe, the deputy head of the Amarapura Township Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, told Mizzima that currently there is no PRRS in Amarapura.

“There is no spreading of PRRS in Amarapura. The spread of PRRS was stopped by the intense heat,” he said.

A veterinarian in Pyigyitagun Township told Mizzima that the disease is still spreading in small pig farms in some townships including Myitnge, Sintkai, Myinchan, and Pyinoolwin in Mandalay Region.

“At first, the disease was spread among small farms in urban areas,” he said. “Later, the weather was colder. Now the new outbreak has occurred in suburban areas. The death rate is high.”

In early April, the Mandalay Division Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department distributed insecticide and disinfectant to large pig farms and small scale domestic pig owners free of charge and provided bio-technology control methods during field trips to inspect farms.

The disease was first reported on 15 February in the Mandalay area.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) earlier issued an emergency warning in Burma on the spread of PRRS.

PRRS disease doesn’t usually infect humans, and people in Mandalay have not stopped eating pork, according to a resident.

“We know that if the meat is thoroughly cooked, we cannot be infected by the disease,” he said. “As far as I know, most people in Mandalay are still eating pork.”

Information ThePigSite News Desk

MYANMAR – PRRS Kills Over 500 Pigs in Second Largest City – Tuesday, March 22, 2011

MYANMAR – Over 500 pigs have died of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) disease in Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay, a local weekly reported Monday.

The PRRS disease is also known as blue ear disease occurring with pig for the first time in Myanmar recently.

The 500 pigs were among the 2,000 bred in 200 poultry farms in five townships in Mandalay, the Weekly Eleven News said.

So far, the disease, detected from the dead pigs, has not spread to other animals or human but infect other pigs, it said.

Veterinary surgeons are exploring the cause of the disease, the report added.

The Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) has warned the public to take bio-security measures and report to the authorities on suspected death of livestocks.

Meanwhile, avian influenza (H5N1) struck Sittway, western Rakhine state and Tantsle township, northwestern Sagaing region in the first two months of this year respectively and thousands of chickens, suspected of carrying virulent avian influenza, were wiped out following the discovery of their unusual death.

Myanmar was first struck by bird flu H5N1 in 2006.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

MYANMAR – Outbreak of Blue-Ear Disease Found in Myanmar

MYANMAR – The country has reported an outbreak of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), commonly known as blue-ear disease, in Mandalay in pigs of different ages.
The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) received an immediate notification on Friday, 4 March. The outbreak was initially observed on 15 February and confirmed on 28 February.

A total of 559 pigs were found susceptible, out of which a 100 per cent apparent morbidity rate and a mortality rate of 37.57 per cent (210 deaths) have been recorded.

The source of the outbreak has not yet been identified, and an investigation is being carried out by the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department.

Information ThePigSite News Desk