The Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries is clearing the air on Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome commonly known as "blue ear disease."
They say there is a lot of misinformation in the public domain.
Dr. Lisa Musai acting Chief Veterinary Officer of the Animal Production and Health Division says, PRRS poses no risk to human health or food safety.
00:00Blue air disease is a serious condition that affects domestic pigs and is characterized by reproductive failures and respiratory problems.
00:09That's according to Dr. Lisa Musai, acting chief veterinary officer of the Animal Production and Health Division.
00:16So it's a disease of pigs, hence porcine. You get clinical signs in the reproductive system and the respiratory system.
00:25So in your breeding animals, you would get signs like abortions, stillbirths, maybe even weak-born piglets.
00:34And the younger pigs tend to show more of the respiratory signs.
00:38So you would get coughing, sneezing, labored breathing, lots of respiratory distress, fever, poor growth, lethargy, weakness.
00:49Dr. Musai says the disease poses no threat to human health and the animals are safe for human consumption.
00:56It's a very species-specific disease, meaning it will affect pigs only, not other animals, and it cannot affect humans.
01:04So it's not a zoonotic disease. Humans cannot get the disease from pigs by handling the pigs or by handling meat or from eating pork, right?
01:13Our local pork is safe to eat.
01:16She is asking pig farmers to call the ministry at 280-7945 if they notice any change of behavior in their pigs.
01:25We are doing our surveillance. We are looking to see which other farms might have the disease.
01:31And this is where we need to really appeal to the pig farmers out there.
01:35But if they're seeing clinical signs, those respiratory signs I talk about, coughing, fever in their piglets, dead piglets, abortions in their older pigs,
01:47then they need to call us at the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, and let us come and investigate on your farm.
Be the first to comment