Efforts to control African swine fever in the Dominican Republic are hitting some snags.
Officials in the DR are going through each province, testing all the pigs and depopulating the infected ones. They fear the entire island of Hispaniola is already infected and total eradication may be needed.
USDA says that information can not be confirmed right now.
Many of the DR’s pigs live in backyards and animal health officials are getting resistance from pig owners.
According to APHIS’s Dr. Jack Shere, “They are indemnifying the pigs to the tune of about $75 dollars each... people don’t believe that the government will pay them for their pigs, so they’re hiding their pigs. They are having to use the military and police force to find and identify infection.”
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