BANGKOK, July 30 (TNA) – The Livestock Development Department has ordered officials to strictly check the ingredients of animal feed imported across the border to screen out African swine fever (ASF).
Sorawit Thaneto, director-general of the department, said the order responded to the ASF epidemic in Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea and Laos. It reflected the department’s efforts to prevent the fever transmission through animal feed.
He said that animal feed and its ingredients must come from reliable sources certified by countries of their origin. He referred to health certificates and phytosanitary certificates.
Under the control measure, officials are checking the conditions of containers and packages of feed and its ingredients and the goods themselves. Besides, they sample ingredients for laboratory tests to check ASF contamination. The vehicles that carry such imports across the border must be sterilized.
Officials are also imposing similar measures at local feed factories, farms and feed shops. In addition, the control is applied to chemical fertilizers containing processed animal meat, bone, blood and hair as well as cassava chips and maize imported from Cambodia as animal feed.
So far, officials have not found ASF contamination but they are waiting for the results of tests on feed ingredients, Mr Sorawit said. (TNA)
