France bans imports of animal feed containing pork
France has suspended imports of live pigs from the US; Canada; Mexico and Japan in order to prevent the PEDv from entering the country. The ban also includes all products containing pork for animal feed. The French Ministry of Agriculture, Agrifood, and Forestry reported last Friday.
Jean-Luc Angot, deputy general and chief veterinary officer stated that the ban will chiefly concern animal feed, with exports predominantly coming from Canada. Feed containing pork byproducts are widely used in EU countries. Porcine blood products like plasma are commonly used in the diets of piglets after they being weaned – a potential way the disease could be spread.
The ban, introduced this weekend, does not include pork meat for human consumption. The French have been the first in Europe, so far, to ban pork from North America. An attempt to reach an EU-wide ban has been opposed by the European Commission.
The virus which is spread in faecal matter has killed around seven million young pigs in the US since it was first identified there a year ago. Animal feed is the suspected way the disease got into the US. The disease is believed to have its origins in China, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
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