SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Five days af­ter his en­tire herd of pigs was culled and buried due to an out­break of Porcine Re­pro­duc­tive and Res­pi­ra­to­ry Syn­drome (PRRS), Waller­field farmer Bri­an Ma­turine says he is still wait­ing on word from the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture about com­pen­sa­tion to restart his busi­ness.

On Wednes­day, more than 250 pigs, val­ued at $700,000, were de­stroyed by the min­istry to pre­vent the high­ly con­ta­gious dis­ease from spread­ing to oth­er farms. The pigs test­ed pos­i­tive on Ju­ly 21, and the farm was im­me­di­ate­ly des­ig­nat­ed an in­fect­ed zone. Dis­pos­al of the an­i­mals was car­ried out at a se­cure lo­ca­tion un­der strict biose­cu­ri­ty pro­to­cols.

PRRS af­fects the re­pro­duc­tive and res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tems of pigs, caus­ing abor­tions in sows, death in piglets, fever, loss of ap­petite and res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress. While the dis­ease pos­es no threat to hu­mans or food safe­ty, it can spread quick­ly via con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed footwear, cloth­ing, equip­ment or ve­hi­cles.

For Ma­turine, the loss was dev­as­tat­ing.

“These last few weeks were stress­ful for me. I ain’t go lie to tell you wa­ter come out of my eyes when they killed my pigs be­cause since I leave sec­ondary school, I nev­er worked for any­one. I start­ed small with my pig farm and grew it in­to a busi­ness over the years,” he told the Sun­day Guardian.

“It was a hard blow for me to see my in­vest­ment and hard work go down the drain be­cause of this dis­ease.”

Ma­turine said he is ea­ger to restart his farm but has no idea what com­pen­sa­tion pack­age, if any, he will re­ceive.

“I still don’t know what po­si­tion I’m in. My back is against the wall. No­body from the min­istry has put for­ward an of­fer. They are just say­ing they will give me some­thing. But I don’t know what is the some­thing. They are not mov­ing pro­fes­sion­al­ly at all. To me, this is a wait­ing game,” he said.

“This is my liveli­hood … my bread and but­ter.”

The farm had been un­der quar­an­tine for al­most two months, dur­ing which Ma­turine con­tin­ued to feed and care for the in­fect­ed an­i­mals with­out any fi­nan­cial sup­port.

“I didn’t ask them for a dol­lar and they did not of­fer a dol­lar,” he said.

Since the out­break, the farmer has de­plet­ed his small sav­ings to cov­er bills, three loans, and sup­port his fam­i­ly. His month­ly loan pay­ments to­tal $9,000.

“The banks I’m deal­ing with are pri­vate. They don’t want to hear my prob­lems. All they are con­cerned about is their mon­ey. In a few days, it will be month end … how am I go­ing to pay my in­stal­ments and bills when my pock­ets are emp­ty?” he asked.

Ma­turine said the up­com­ing Christ­mas sea­son, usu­al­ly the busiest pe­ri­od for pig sales, now looks bleak.

“I can’t do any­thing with­out mon­ey and a new herd.”

At a meet­ing with Waller­field pig farm­ers last month, Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Ravi Rati­ram promised gov­ern­ment sup­port to help cov­er their loss­es and re­pop­u­late their farms.

“We would not turn our backs and walk away,” Rati­ram as­sured the farm­ers at the time.

How­ev­er, when con­tact­ed via What­sApp yes­ter­day about com­pen­sa­tion for Ma­turine, Rati­ram did not re­spond.

What is PRRS? (Put in box)

Porcine Re­pro­duc­tive and Res­pi­ra­to­ry Syn­drome (PRRS) is a vi­ral dis­ease that af­fects pigs.

Im­pact on pigs:

Caus­es abor­tions, still­births and weak piglets in sows

Leads to fever, poor ap­petite, res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress, and high death rates in piglets

Weak­ens old­er pigs, mak­ing them vul­ner­a­ble to oth­er in­fec­tions

Trans­mis­sion:

Spreads rapid­ly through con­tact with in­fect­ed pigs

Can al­so spread via con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed footwear, cloth­ing, ve­hi­cles, or farm equip­ment

Hu­man risk:

PRRS does not af­fect hu­mans and pos­es no threat to food safe­ty

Eco­nom­ic im­pact:

Caus­es heavy fi­nan­cial loss­es for farm­ers due to high mor­tal­i­ty, re­duced pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and manda­to­ry culling of in­fect­ed herds

Con­trol mea­sures:

Quar­an­tine of in­fect­ed farms

Culling and safe dis­pos­al of in­fect­ed an­i­mals

Strict biose­cu­ri­ty pro­to­cols, in­clud­ing dis­in­fec­tion of equip­ment and re­strict­ed farm ac­cess