Health officials are advising the public of the suspected presence of a disease at a pig farm in North Trinidad. However the Ministry says, local pork remains safe for human consumption. Rynessa Cutting has more.
00:00Thus far, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, also known as PIRS, is suspected at one pig farm in North Trinidad, also known as Blue Air Disease.
00:11The Ministry of Agriculture says PIRS is a serious condition affecting domestic pigs, characterized by reproductive failure and respiratory symptoms.
00:21Ministry officials have been visiting pig farms in the area, but pig farmers say information is still lacking.
00:27But they have this farm lockdown. It's in quarantine. Nothing could leave. Nothing could go in.
00:36That's how serious the situation is right now.
00:42But I think what needs to happen is the Ministry have an office down here in Wallerfield.
00:47I think the veterinarian needs to come in here and call the farmers to our meeting and explain the full extent of, you know, this disease and what are the repercussions and stuff.
00:59Because I asked the vet if they have any vaccination or anything that could prevent this disease.
01:07We don't have anything like that in Trinidad.
01:09The Ministry's advisory confirms that local pork remains safe for human consumption, and also indicates that the disease poses no threat to human health.
01:21However, farmers have an urge to adopt strict sanitation measures.
01:25We don't even know how infectious it is, because here's something, this disease was discovered since last year, you know, in South, that they had to kill out all the pigs on even farms, right?
01:38And since that time to now, we never really get any sort of interaction with the Ministry of Agriculture concerning that.
01:48It's only now that they discover it on a farm here in Wallerfield.
01:54We don't know how it reached from south to north, or we don't even know how it reached in the country.
01:58Bowen says the small pig farming industry needs the government's support, as evidenced by CSO data.
02:05The information is that we would have consumed 6 million kilos of pork in this country, 20, 23 figures.
02:16And only 1% of that came from local sources.
02:23And that is madness.
02:25We had about 30-something pig farms on the 100 acres block here.
02:28Now, if it has five, it has plenty, you know.
02:30For instance, I asked the veterinarian, if this disease spread through the farms here in Wallerfield, what is going to happen?
02:39Will you all be slaughtering off all the animals?
02:42She says, that is not up to her, that is up to the higher-ups.
02:45But if that happens on this lot of animals, that is the end of it, you know, that is the end of the small pig farming industry in Wallerfield.
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