Tuesday, May 21, 2019

African Swine Fever Is Likely Already Arriving At U.S. Airports

I knew a Russian lady, Hero of the Soviet Union for a record parachute jump, who was caught smuggling pickles to her quite-well-off daughter so I guess people carrying pork or other comestibles for personal consumption is not unusual.
From United Press International:
Pork products testing positive for African swine fever are likely arriving at airports across the United States, carried by travelers from infected regions, according to a study by researchers in the United States and Spain.

The study -- conducted at the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety at the University of Minnesota and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid -- looked at the amount of smuggled pork confiscated by customs and border officers at various airports and the number of flights arriving from African swine fever-positive regions.

By doing this, researchers also determined the airports that are likely seeing the most African swine fever-positive products. Those include: Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey; Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport; Los Angeles International Airport; John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York; and San Jose International Airport in California.

"The assessed probability that infected products are arriving in airports is 100 percent," said Paul Sundberg, the director of the Swine Health Information Center in Iowa, which funded the report....
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