National campaign fights pig plague and generates jobs

Alvaro Morales Molina
Honduras This Week

Approximately 600 jobs will be generated related to a new campaign to fight the “pig plague,” launched by the Agricultural and Cattle Ministry. Jobs will be avail­able in the communities where the campaign is being developed.

About 600 direct employees and many indirect employees will be required during the development of the Eradication and Control program of the Classic Pig Plague, (PPC), a program presented and managed by the Secretary of Agriculture and Cattle of Honduras (SAG), through the National Service of Farming Health (Senasa). The campaign is projected to last 4 to 5 years in order to be able to declare Honduras free of the disease.

Technicians of the campaign told HTW that the job generation occurs because they have to contract personnel to train by technicians of Senasa to perform vaccinations in all of the regions of the country where the actions are made.

All of the trained and certified personnel will earn a minimum of 4,000 lempiras per month and will also receive travel allowances, bringing total earnings to 7,500 to 8,000 lempiras per month.

The campaign has entered its second phase, the epidemiolo­gist monitoring stage. During the first stage, a total of 391,860 pigs were vaccinated, and some 12,633 communities visited, assisting 92,450 pig owners.

Campaign coordinator, Gustavo Adolfo Guifarro, told HTW that it has entered a fundamental phase to maintain and monitor the animals already vaccinated. This phase will last approximately 2 more years and by then, it is hoped that Honduras will be declared free of the ‘pig plague.’

“In this new phase, 15 trained technicians will manage all of the control posts of animal mobilization or positions for quarantine,” said Guifarro. The campaign has covered all departments in Honduras, except Gracias A Dios and the Bay Islands, where serological tests will be made to detect if the presence of the classic pig plague exists.

The campaign has invested 23 million lempira into the project so far.

Negotiations almost complete:
Chicken exportation may begin shortly from Honduras to the U.S.

Alvaro Morales Molina
Honduras This Week

According to official sources, negotiations between the Honduras and United States governments regarding chicken exports from Honduras to the U.S. are reaching a successful conclusion.

The negotiations are, according to the source, after initial phases started months ago, far enough along to only require governmental delegations from both countries to make final official visits. This was relayed to Honduras This Week by Edmundo Toro, Director of the National Service of Farming Health, (SENASA), a division of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Cattle (SAG).

Official U.S. commissions will arrive in Honduras soon to make sure all of the health codes for meat importation are in place in Honduras, prior to shipments of the chicken, per Torro. “Right now, we are ready to export chicken meat, but private investments are not yet organized; it is required that all of the details of animal health be cleared,” explain the Honduran official.

He added that it is necessary for an audit to be performed regarding animal health, in order to verify if all the requirements are met, “we did pretty well in a pre-audit; the private sector is very motivated,” said Toro.

One of the aspects closely monitored during the negotiation process are the conditions in which the chickens are raised and that sound sanitary techniques are used continually throughout the growth of the birds.

The processes of negotiations to allow meat exports are typically long.

For example, Chile’s negotiations with the U.S. lasted four years; Honduras’ goal is to complete it in around two years, according to experts.

Honduran – U.S. negotiations for chicken meat exportation began in 2006. The chicken industry in Honduras has maintained a 5% annual growth rate consistently, according to technicians at the National Bird-raising Program of Prevention of Diseases Office.