#5097: Re: #5068: RE: #5013: Slaughter of Creole Pigs (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Rboucard@worldbank.org

An interesting testimony on the subject. thanks for posting.

From:  <belmango@prodigy.net>

Regarding the African swine fever and the "Slaughter of Creole Pigs".
I worked for 5 years with IICA (Inter American Institute for Cooperation
in Agriculture" - - based in Costa Rica. They are part of the Organization
of American States )OAS.  IICA was responsible to carry out the project of
"Erradication of Swine Fever"  both in the DR and in Haiti.
USA, France, Mexico were the three countries thatput money and gave technical
assistant to us and the Dominican Republic to
erradicate Swine Fever from Haiti.  I worked on the project "Swine
Repopulation" financed by USAID from 1984 through December of 1989.  I went
from Assistant Field Operations to Assistant to the Director, to Extension
Coordinator and finally Radio extension Coordinator.  I know this program
and project like the back of my hand and have all the facts about it.

First, our pigs were dying (thousands and thousands) with African Swine
Fever and our farmers did not know why.  Being that our kochon planche or
kochon kreyol were black:  it was hard to see the discoloration on their
genitals and hind legs (which are symtoms of African Swine Fever)  Not
harmful to humans, it can and does destroy an entire population of swine...
The ones that remain become immune but when you chose to live with African
Swine Fever (like Spain did) you CANNOT EXPORT ANY OF YOUR MEAT PRODUCTS TO
ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!  And, that is precisely how we got ASF
years back.  In a plane, coming from Spain, someone brought a sandwich with
pig meat from spain (contaminated with ASF).  The left over was thrown in
the garbagge and a Dominican pig got a hold of it.  The rest is history.
Contaminated, that pig bred with other pigs who then became contaminated.
When the Dominican governement realized what was happening, it contacted the
US Department of agriculture and they decided to exterminate the pig
population of the DR (posing a tremendous threat to the US billion dollar
pig industry).  When the DR farmers found out about having to lose their
pigs, many of them sold their pigs cheap to the Haitian farmer who bred
those contaminated pigs with ours.  And so, begun the biggest nightmare of
our history aside from our many dictatorships.  At first, the USDA tried to
put a sanitary control between the DR and Haitian border = it did not work!
Fifth world country with no discipline...we are a bunch of illiterate folks
and no one explains anything to us.  They just march in and destroy.  So, of
course many Haitian farmers hid their pigs burrying them underground so that
they would not be killed.  A few of them became immune and when bred with
the American Yorkshire, Hamshire pigs from Iowa, gave pigs that looked like
freaks (zebras).  I worked as an Assistant vet for the last three years of
the five that I workd with IICA.  I vaccinated small pigs, cut their teeth
at farrowing time...assisted the farmers with castrations....