Some international visitors arriving at the Puerto Vallarta Airport are being checked for being potential carriers of African swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious and deadly viral disease that affects both domestic and feral swine of all ages.
While ASF is not a threat to human health and cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans, it is a major food safety issue and can cause big disruptions in the pork market and trade.
The campaign, launched by Jalisco Agri-food Health, Safety and Quality Agency (ASICA), in conjunction with the National Service for Agri-food Health, Safety and Quality (Senasica), aims to make travelers aware of the prevention measures in place to avoid the entry of the disease to Mexico, which up to now has been free of the disease.
Although endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, African swine fever first reached Eastern Europe more than ten years ago, and most recently has been confirmed in several western European nations, including Belgium and Germany, the latter Europe’s largest pork producer.
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