STAVROPOL, November 6 (RIA Novosti) - Veterinarians in Southern Russia have culled every pig in the four districts of Stavropol Territory hit by an outbreak of the African swine fever virus, a senior official said on Thursday.
"All the pigs have been culled at private farms in the Sovetsky, Kirovsky, Aleksandrovsky and Predgorny dictricts of Stavropol Territory, where the African swine fever virus has been detected," the deputy head of the regional veterinary service said.
That brings to more than 12,000 the total number of pigs killed since the outbreak was reported in the middle of October.
Outbreaks of the highly contagious virus, which was first registered in 1903 in South Africa, are rare outside sub-Saharan Africa, but 5,000 pigs were culled or died from the virus this summer in Russia's North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia. The virus does not pose a threat to humans.
