Minister Didiza meets with MECs of provinces affected by African Swine Flu
The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ms. Thoko Didiza, MP has met with MEC’s from three provinces that are affected by African Swine Flu in Pretoria, yesterday. The Minister’s meeting was aimed at getting a briefing on the status of the African Swine flu outbreak in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West provinces.
The meeting attended by senior managers from, the affected departments and the national department, looked at various ways of dealing with the outbreak and finding a permanent solutions.
“ We have to look at various options such as institutional arrangements working with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and also reflect on the issue of animal commonages in the affected areas,” said Minister Didiza.
The Minister and MEC’s have set up a task team to urgently look into ways to cab the spread of the diseases to other provinces.
South Africa has been experiencing the African Swine Flu outbreaks in domestic pigs in the previous free area from 2012 by means of the domestic cycle of ASF.
Since April 2019 South Africa has experienced outbreaks of ASF in North West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Free State provinces.
The affected areas are Daveyton in Gauteng, Delmas and Siyabuswa in Mpumalanga and Marikana in the North West. There have been interventions to contain the spread of ASF, such as active surveillance and awareness carried out in the immediate vicinity and passive surveillance is still ongoing.
The Minister has urged pig farmers to make sure that infected animals are isolated and destroyed under the supervision of or by an officer or authorized person.
Minister Didiza also urged officials to make sure that the spread of the ASF is quickly managed.
“We will be engaging with Ministers of Finance and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to ask for their assistance to quickly respond to this challenge” said Minister Didiza.
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