B&H bans pork import from Serbia suspecting African swine fever, test results pending

Veterinary Office of B&H has adopted a Guideline on temporary import ban of certain pork packages from Serbia on the grounds of suspicion of pork in Serbia being infected with swine fever.

The guideline prohibits the import of domestic and wild pigs and pork as well as the domestic and wild pork products which haven`t been processed in a way that guarantees African swine fever virus has been destroyed, writes Nezavisne novine daily.

Veterinary Office has stated that the ban is imposed in order to prevent the fever to spread from Serbia to B&H.

The Guidelines will remain in effect until the competent authorities in Serbia officially confirm there is no more suspicion of African swine fever, the statement adds.

The Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that Bosnia and Herzegovina has imposed the temporary ban of pork from Serbia on suspicion that it might be infected with swine fever.

– We still suspect the fever, and we are waiting for test result from the EU Reference Lab in Madrid. B&H reaction to the situation is completely normal, the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture stated.

The relevant authorities remind that in cases when the neighboring countries suspected the appearance of the fever in their areas, Serbia reacted by imposing bans on meat import from those states.

Serbia reports four cases of swine fever, three near Belgrade

Serbia has reported four cases where there is a suspicion of swine fever appearing in domestic pigs, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) , headquartered in Paris, has announced.

Out of those, three instances of swine fever were recorded near Belgrade and one was registered in Podunavlje District, OIE stated, citing the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture report, Reuters news agency writes.

According to Reuters, the report said that seven pigs died from the disease and 114 were euthanized.

African swine fever is an infectious disease for which neither vaccine nor cure exist but it isn`t harmful for humans since they cannot be infected with it.

Ured za veterinarstvo BiH Sarajevo

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

Veterinary Office of B&H

Ministry of Agriculture of Serbia

World Organization for Animal Health in Paris

OIE

import ban on meat from Serbia

African swine fever in Serbia

export of pigs from Serbia

export of pork