Colombia activates measures to avoid the entrance of ASF

The Colombian Agriculture and Livestock Institute (ICA) is making a call to the international travellers so they refrain from entering Colombia with pork products and by-products from China, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Hungary, Estonia, Mongolia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania, among others, due to the African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks that have appeared in these countries, according to the health notifications of the World Organisation on Animal Health (WOAH/OIE).

Moreover, the Institute established the following measures in the ports, airports and border crossings to inform the travellers of the risks of the disease and to avoid that it enters the country:

• Strengthening of the inspection of the luggage and of the international shipments with the aim of avoiding the possible entrance of risk products. In case of finding them they will be seized and destroyed immediately.
• Handing of leaflets or flyers at all the ICA's offices at the ports, airports and border crossings of Colombia to create a culture among the travellers on the importance of the disease.
• Divulgation of preventive measures through the placing of banners and informative videos on African swine fever (ASF) in the lounges of the international airports of Bogotá, Rionegro, Palmira, Cartagena and Barranquilla and in the sea ports of Cartagena and Barranquilla, where the international travellers are informed of the following aspects to bear in mind:
  • Do not enter meat nor pork by-products from other countries. If they do so they must declare them to the ICA.
  • Do not enter pig farms in Colombia if they have visited farms, ranches or premises where pigs are raised in countries affected by ASF.

Ms Deyanira Barrero, the ICA's general manager, stated that the transmission may happen through fomites such as footwear, clothing, vehicles, knives and equipment due to the great resistance of the virus in the environment, and because of fly and tick bites.