Free-range pig farming in the Eastern Cape was slowing a plan to curb the country's first outbreak of hog cholera in 87 years because the animals couldn't be caught fast enough to be culled, Farmer's Weekly said, citing an industry body.
Simon Streicher, the chief executive of the SA Pork Producers' Association, said state veterinary workers could catch only about 300 pigs a day, the weekly magazine reported.
The outbreak, in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, was confirmed on July 19. So far 40 500 pigs had been culled, with 26 000 belonging to one farmer, the magazine said. Another 20 000 might need to be killed.
State compensation for farmers might rise to as much as R50 million, Farmers Weekly said.
Symptoms of the disease include paralysis, fever and the birth of "shaking piglets", thepigsite.com said. In 2001 an outbreak prompted Spanish authorities to destroy 132 000 pigs in that country, the website said.
- Bloomberg