Cuba, 1971: Local depopulation


The outbreak of ASF in the area around Havana can be considered the anomaly, as it is the only in this range that happened in 1971. First out- breaks were found on a finisher farm of over 11,000 animals on 6 May 1971, in Havana Province. Acknowledging the risk for the country’s 1.5 million pigs, the Cuban authorities took a strong and proactive approach and opted for total eradication of pigs in both Havana Province as well as City of Havana Province – provinces that have ceased to exist after a reorganisation in 2010. An overview by researcher Rosa Elena Simeón Negrín and others (2002) described Cuba’s pig business in 1971 as “a new, well-structured industry with an im- portant concentration of pork production in Ha- vana Prov- ince


and the western region of the country”. They describe how, with the help of civil- ians, movement of pigs was efficiently restricted, a census of pigs was organ- ised and the foci of ASF were eliminated by means of hygienic sacrifice. Simeón Negrín wrote that, in total, the Cubans identified 33 outbreaks in the two provinces; this area contained 463,332 pigs, she wrote, which all had to be eliminated. She added, “Private owners in both provinces were allowed to slaughter from three to five pigs for self- consumption and were required to sell the remaining animals to the state.” The interesting question remains: how did the virus manage to get onto the island? For that, it is good to bear in mind that Cuba, because of the language and history, still had commercial relations with Spain. ASF had been on the Iberian Peninsula for decades. It is most likely, as Raymond A. Zilinskas presented in a review in 1999, that the virus came with contami- nated food scraps from a Spanish aircraft.


Dominican Republic, 1978-1980: Total eradication


There are various questions about the outbreak of ASF in the Domini- can Republic. The first concerns the time of entry. Officially, outbreaks were confirmed in the west of the country in August 1978, but pigs had already started dying in January 1978. Equally unclear is where the first outbreak occurred. Given that on oth- er occasions mentioned in this overview, the virus came in through a major (air)port city, it looks likely that in this case the capital, Santo Do- mingo, might have been the port of entry. Just as in Brazil (see next page), in the Dominican Republic a diversified picture could be seen in terms of virulence. The Dominican Republic had a fair share of commercial farming. The country, which occupies more than half of the


island Hispan-


iola, opted for total eradication of its esti- mated 1.4 million pigs. That did not mean that all of them were culled. Some that still looked healthy were sent to slaughter, whereas others died of the virus. In the end, 374 different foci had been found, and over 192,000 animals were


culled, according to an overview edited by P.J. Wilkinson of the Animal Vi- rus Research Institute, UK, in 1981. This cost the Do- minican authorities US$ 8.5 million. In 1981, the coun- try was declared free from ASF.


One thing remains to be addressed. As can be seen in the next page, the virus also entered Brazil in 1978. However, there is not much evi- dence to suggest a link between this outbreak and that in the Domini- can Republic. As Franz C.M. Alexander pointed out, in 1978 there was not a lot of meat trade between the continent and the Dominican Republic due to Foot-and-Mouth Disease. More probable is that the Do- minican Republic and Bra- zil were infected relatively simultaneously from the Iberian Peninsula.


▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 1, 2020 7


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