Barbados steps up swine fever defence

Barbados is stepping up efforts to protect its agriculture sector from animal health and biosecurity threats, particularly African Swine Fever (ASF), in the face of warning about the possibility of breaches.

Regional officials has warned that the risk of the disease breaching the island’s borders remains real despite the country’s clean record to date.

Agricultural stakeholders are gathered at the Hilton Barbados resort at Needhams Point, St Michael, for the start of a three-day ASF surveillance and response workshop, organised by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

The session focused on prevention strategies and response protocols for the highly lethal virus, and comes amid growing concern over ASF’s spread through the Americas, with the disease already entrenched in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Mark Trotman told the gathering that while Barbados has so far kept the virus and other animal diseases out, gaps in the island’s import system continue to pose a vulnerability.

Despite the relatively successful record, Trotman noted that response measures must also be implemented to protect the country’s livestock, and one of the main cultural dishes which is pork.

“One of the things that keeps me awake at night as CVO is the thought of an outbreak of African swine fever, or even cluster swine fever in the country, and us not having the ability to respond to it quickly, and that’s what gives me nightmares. Not just African swine fever, but any trans-boundary animal disease, because that is our responsibility, and so I am hoping that the outcomes of this workshop will give us the tools we need to be able to effectively respond in a structured way to quickly diagnose and stamp out any outbreaks of African swine fever that do enter the country,” he added.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Shantal Munro-Knight highlighted the impact that healthy swine production has for the country’s food security, social experience and livelihood of the people. 

She noted that with this in mind, the ministry has developed an investment portfolio focused on upgrading and expanding all of its testing facilities such as veterinary labs, and Government Analytical Services.

“As part of that investment portfolio, we are hoping to be able to attract some financing for a new slaughterhouse. We are also upgrading and expanding all of our testing facilities, the veterinary lab, as well as our government analytical services, because we understand the importance of biosecurity and having the correct testing facilities.

“Within the region, that is something that we do not invest in enough. To have the capacity to be able to have surveillance and all of the necessary information and reporting will allow us, again, to respond proactively,” she added.

Munro-Knight also addressed the element of vulnerability stemming from travellers, which stressed the importance of educating the public to the consequence and impact such practices can have on the wider society. (JRN)

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