Livestock department not hiding swine fever cases, insists chief
No African Swine Fever (ASF) cases were concealed by the Department of Livestock Development, the department’s director-general Sorawit Thaneeto insisted in an interview with Kom Chad Luek on Thursday.
He said the government had made the prevention of ASF part of the national agenda since 2019 and relevant agencies met every month to discuss the situation.
“The department has immediately dealt with swine farms facing the risk of ASF and it is seeking a budget for disease prevention, not compensation payments,” he said.
Sorawit also confirmed that he will not resign and will continue working to improve farmers’ quality of life.
“I have always worked with integrity and have successfully contained the spread of several other diseases such as horse plague and lumpy skin,” he said. “My intention is to solve the issue for swine farmers before I retire in eight years.”
To solve the ASF outbreak – one of the reasons why the price of pork is soaring – Sorawit said the department has both short- and long-term plans, with a focus on helping small farms.
“The short-term plan is to contain the spread of ASF as soon as possible. After that we will improve farmers’ pig-raising standards to ensure the spread of disease can be curbed,” he said.
He added that it would take up to a year to tackle the soaring price of pork.
As for the viral clip of a pig farmer in Nakhon Pathom’s Sam Phran district showing carcasses of pigs at risk of ASF inside jars, Sorawit said the farmer should inform related agencies as soon as possible.
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