Last night I had the opportunity to give a presentation on managing swine carcasses during an outbreak of African swine fever to the Dominican Republic. They are currently faced with the daunting task of slaughtering and disposing of tens of thousands of pigs after detecting outbreaks of African swine fever in 11 of the country’s 32 provinces.
I am very grateful to my host, Dr. Dejelia Gómez, and the Dominican Republic College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Gómez started the evening with a presentation on the Dominican Republic’s response to previous outbreaks of avian influenza and Newcastle disease. I followed Dr. Gómez with a presentation summarizing the most practical swine carcass disposal methods for the Dominican Republic providing reference to several Spanish language resources.
My thoughts are with my colleagues in the Dominican Republic as they face these challenges.