Around 100,000 pigs have been marked for slaughter after an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak was detected at one of Ukraine's biggest pig farms, a senior official at the Ukrainian state food safety service said on Wednesday.
ASF-infected pigs were found at the Halychyna Zahid agriculture firm in western Ukraine's Lviv region on 17 August.
The company's Facebook page confirmed the outbreak, but it did not respond to requests for further comment.
Fatal Disease
The case, affecting 1.6% of Ukraine's pig herd, could become the worst ever in the country, which for years has been trying to overcome the fatal disease. The ASF virus is highly contagious among pigs, but is not dangerous to humans.
The worst case to date, which saw around 60,000 pigs killed, took place in 2015 in the Kyiv region.
Ukraine has detected 351 cases of ASF since 2017, and 72,226 pigs have been killed. Ukraine's pig population totalled 6.4 million head as of 1 August.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
