Swine Fever Hits Romanian Farm*

By DRAGOS BOTA
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 7, 2007; 2:19 PM

TIMISOARA, Romania -- Some 16,000 pigs will be slaughtered at a farm
belonging to Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's top pork producer, after
a second outbreak of swine fever at one of the company's farms in less
than a week, an official said Tuesday.

The discovery came Monday at a farm in the southwestern village of
Igris, 38 miles west of Timisoara near the Hungarian border, according
to Radu Roatis, who heads Romania's Veterinary Heath Authority.

More outbreaks were expected, Roatis told reporters. "There are other
farms that do not have all the health authorizations and do not respect"
animal and environment safety rules, he said.

Roatis said the farm in Igris did not have an animal health certificate
or a certificate attesting to environmental standards, as required by law.

Last week, authorities discovered an outbreak at another pig farm
belonging to Smithfield in the village of Cenei, and said that 20,000
pigs were being slaughtered.

The Smithfield, Va.-based company has 25 pig farms in western Romania.
There was no immediate reaction from Smithfield.

Swine fever is a viral disease that is fatal to pigs but has no known
effect on people.

Authorities shut down other farms in the region Saturday until their
pigs could be inspected.

The last outbreak of swine fever in the area was in 2003, authorities said.

Smithfield is the largest pork producer in western Romania with an
investment of $1.1 billion. The company bought Communist-era state-owned
pig farms.