AFRICAN SWINE FEVER ON FARMS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Over 4,200 pigs were slaughtered in less than a month due to African swine disease in the northeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only after nearly 3,000 pigs were slaughtered in the surrounding areas of Bijeljina, Ugljevik, and Lopar did the government of Republika Srpska announce a state of emergency. African swine flu first broke out on June 22 in the towns of Semberija in northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina, and over 4,200 pigs have been so far. City officials say they have taken all required precautions, but the sickness has impacted many farms. The cause of the African plague is unknown, but it was likely imported because no virus was identified in wild boars.
ASF (African swine fever) is a highly infectious illness that affects farmed and wild pigs. ASF is spread through contact between infected and healthy pigs, feeding on litters containing contaminated food remnants, and transportation, such as trucks or tractors. The virus may survive on dead and butchered animals, rodents, and insects. According to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), when this disease develops, it can kill the animal in a matter of days, and the fatality rate can approach 100%. African swine fever is a deadly illness for all pigs; it can be spread by people, but humans do not become ill. In recent years, the illness has spread across Europe, killing or euthanizing 1.3 million pigs between 2016 and June 2020.
Typically, pigs raised for their flesh are kept in filthy, crowded conditions, where disease can spread like wildfire, and they’re typically denied access to fresh air, sunlight, and adequate space. The air on factory farms teems with bacteria, and the animals and humans on the premises breathe in the accumulated germs and waste—a recipe for spreading virulent diseases. Pigs are then slaughtered on killing floors that are contaminated with feces, vomit, blood, and other bodily fluids, which drain into vast lagoons of waste that can be smelled for miles and often leak onto nearby land and into water supplies.
