According to the head of the Provincial Department of Veterinary Services in Bengo, Ana Maria Fita, the ban was decreed on Monday, after the death of around 100 pigs on two neighboring farms in the municipality of Dande.
“The ban we made is not because we have swine fever, but just suspicion, because on the farm where we went we no longer found animals and based on the clinical signs we suspect it is swine fever”, said the person responsible today in statements to Lusa.
Ana Maria Fita explained that, after noticing the lack of 50 pigs on that farm, due to slow death of the animals, on another farm the death of more than 40 animals was reported, increasing the suspicion of a plague in the region.
“So, as the virus spreads quickly, we thought about banning it now to prevent its spread in other provinces. We are waiting to collect samples from other farms to send to the laboratory,” she stressed.
The ban on the sale of pork and its derivatives in Bengo, the border province of Luanda, Uíje and Cuanza Norte, also comes to alert other breeders in the region that Bengo “is on alert”, she pointed out.
The municipality of Humpata, Huíla province, reported cases of swine fever in February, confirmed by laboratory tests, a fact that led to the ban on the sale and consumption of meat in that region.
