2019 Volume 23 Issue 2 Pages 102-103
Since the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) spread into China, Animal Quarantine Service (AQS) in Japan started to test samples taken from pork products confiscated from travelers from China as a result of quarantine inspection to examine the presence of ASF virus. As a result, ASF virus (ASFV) was isolated from two of these samples. As this means the serious increase of the risk of ASF introduction from Asian countries via travelers, AQS have enhanced the level of penal measures against travelers with prohibited pock products by doing such as issuing the Alarming Documents with the list of legal punishments to them. In addition, travelers who have issued the Alarming Documents were listed in the database and when a traveler with repeated violation was identified, the person will be arrested for assembling the case. After the start of these enhancement measures, 7 travelers were arrested for four cases. A list of these cases is published at the AQS homepage. We bereave that these our efforts effectively raise the interest to Japanese AQS regulations among travelers and will reduce the risk of ASF introduction into Japan.
