Swine Fever nightmare continues

By Peter Crichton

ALTHOUGH, at the time of writing, no new reports have been received of classical swine fever outbreaks, the nightmare continues for those producers within the four surveillance areas in the pig rich areas of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

Under current legislation, following notification of a CSF outbreak, a 3km protection zone is set up around the affected units. A wider surveillance area is then created which has to extend to physical boundaries, normally main roads, rivers or the coastline.

The rules have created some unnaturally large zones up to 25 miles wide inside which all pig movements are suspended. Although in other EU countries this area is normally about 10km (6 miles) from the confirmed site, the natural boundaries rule applying in the UK has brought in hundreds of extra farms that would normally be unaffected.

MAFF has stated that once the cleansing of any outbreak unit has been completed there is a seven-day period after which pig movements within a surveillance zone can recommence, but only under licence.

The problem facing producers in these zones is that slaughter can only take place if the pigs are going direct to an abattoir which has heat treatment facilities for the carcass meat. There are thought to be only a handful of such plants in the country with no information about the prices that this heat treated pigmeat might attract.

With an estimated backlog of at least 40,000 finished pigs in the surveillance areas building up by an estimated 10,000-15,000 pigs per week, producers are claiming that, even though their herds may be cleared, they may find it almost impossible to market their finished pigs until the heat treatment rule is relaxed.

A MAFF spokesman was not prepared to submit an estimate for the time that the heat treatment rules would apply but simply felt that this was likely to be “weeks rather than days”.

The NPA is therefore pressing MAFF and the government for a compensation scheme for those farmers who have finished pigs to sell onto what may prove to be an almost non-existent market. This should make up the difference between normal market prices and the reduced heat treatment value received.