Russia announces use of microchips to fight African Swine Fever

//23 Feb 2012
Russian authorities have decided to implant an innovation microchip in the ear of every pig, which will contain all the information about the animal. The new microchip will provide information about changes in the health of the pig and will help farmers to timely detect the infection of the animal with African Swine Fever.
It is assumed that each company must be equipped with the latest electronic technology, which will be regularly read information from all microchips and deliver it to a single computer.

According to Eugene Gromyko, deputy governor of Kuban, the area most affected by African Swine Fever (ASF), this measure will help curb the spread of a dangerous virus. It is assumed that in some areas in southern Russia in the first place in the Krasnodar chips will be implanted around the pig livestock within three years. In the future a similar measure will be implemented in other regions of Russia.

Modernisation cost
According to preliminary expert estimates, such modernisation, which will become mandatory, will cost the average company about 150 million roubles (US$5 million). Not every one farm has such funds and therefore it is predicted that more than 90% of pork production enterprises will be forced to leave the market. Thus, the Russian authorities are planning through the economic measures leave only large pig farms in the market.

Looking back to December 2011, authorities in some regions of Russia took a decision in an administrative order to limit the number of pig livestock on private farms to three. This caused a lot of disturbances and protests of the small and medium-sized manufacturers, which results that due to the pressure of public opinion this measure was abandoned.