A traveler unknowingly takes African Swine Fever to Japan

Japanese officials stopped a travelers luggage from China bound for Japan because of pork in the suitcase that later tested positive for African swine fever. Japan's Agriculture Ministry announced the finding Monday of sausages in a passengers luggage that tested positive for the disease. African swine fever is a highly contagious disease spreading across China and other nations. The case in Japan is the first in the nation, and agriculture officials say there are no domestic cases of infections in Japan.  The passenger arriving on October first from Beijing was found to have about 1.5 kilograms of sausages which are prohibited from being brought into Japan. A Tokyo-based news agency reports the passenger was asked to abandon the sausages and they tested positive in the state's genetic test conducted later. The U.S. has similar safeguards. Recently, a detection dog sniffed out a full roasted hog in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International airport being transported by an international traveler. The Department of Agriculture trains the dogs in Georgia and is using them to protect the U.S. from African swine fever.


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