Page 43 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 19

Food Health
Food Health

Nelson Aquino observes his pig farm
after pigs died of African swine fever,
in Palmarito, Monte Cristi, Dominican
Republic. August 1, 2021. Photo: Reu-
ters/Ricardo Rojas

Governments Use

A Pig Pandemic

To Expand Corporate Power And Crush Small Farms

by GRAIN | 6 Oct 2021 Corporations

n May 2021, pigs started province who lost all of her 22 pigs ment reacted. After visiting some of
dying in large numbers from a to the unknown disease. the farms and conducting autopsies,
mysterious disease in differ- the animal health authority stated
Ient villages in the Dominican Some farmers posted videos of publicly that it was simply a matter
Republic, near the border with Haiti. their dead pigs to YouTube to try of a pneumonia, which, according
The local farmers were distraught and attract attention. And reports to the government, had killed only
and desperate. They called the began circulating of outbreaks in around 60 young pigs on eight back-
authorities and pleaded for the gov- other parts of the country. By late yard farms in the northwest.
ernment to identify the disease so June, talk of the mysterious disease
that they could figure out some way was all over the country’s media. The government’s Director of An-
to deal with it. Thousands of pigs were dead, small imal Health, Dr Rafael Bienvenido
farmers were in ruins, and consum- Nuñez Mieses, said the deaths were
“If it’s not stopped, no pigs will ers were shying away from pork. caused by poor sanitary and feed
be left alive here”, said Evangelista practices on backyard farms.
Con, a farmer from Montecristi It was only then that the govern-

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