Department of Livestock Development (DLD) officers swooped to forestall an outbreak of Asian Swine Fever (ASF) due to the agency’s trusty beagles sniffing out a traveller’s illegal pork sausages at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.
DLD Deputy Director and spokesperson Sophat Chavarnkul offered a report on the operation performed by the DLD-Quarantine and Inspection K9 Unit at the airport yesterday, July 16. Sophat reported that the officers and their beagles successfully detected and confiscated eight.5 kilogrammes of illegal pork sausages from the bags of a overseas traveller.
This sort of sausage is mostly present in scorching pot eating places in Thailand, especially Chinese-style scorching pot dishes.
The sausages had been seized as a end result of absence of a necessary well being certificates. This preventive measure has been in effect since 2018, following the outbreak of ASF in Asia, aiming to curb the spread of the illness within Thailand.
Sophat revealed that numerous travellers have been illicitly bringing pork products into Thailand, resulting in some contracting the ASF virus. Consequently, the DLD has been diligently monitoring the worldwide ASF scenario and actively curbing the import of pork and associated gadgets from high-risk countries.
To combat this problem, the DLD has enlisted a team of specifically skilled beagles from their esteemed K9 Unit. These beagles are stationed close to the baggage reclaim area, dedicating approximately ten to twenty minutes after flights from at-risk nations have landed.
Beagles are ideally suited for this activity because of their distinctive olfactory senses and pleasant nature. Originating from hounds, they possess an innate capability to detect odours. Each beagle undergoes extensive coaching from a younger age, commencing their operational duties after a rigorous five to six months of training.
Once these diligent canines catch a whiff of illicit products, they promptly alert the officers by mendacity down. They are highly proficient in detecting over 50 illegal gadgets listed beneath the Animal Epidemic Act. Profit include animal meat, furs, skins, faeces, honey, processed cooked foods like ham, sausages, Vietnamese sausage, Chinese pork sausage, pickled foods, and even unhatched eggs.
The K9 unit’s official Facebook web page shared pictures of the operation, garnering praise from quite a few Thai netizens who flooded the comment part with compliments for each the officers and the Beagles.
According to Section 31 of the Animal Epidemic Act, importing animals or carcasses of animals with out permission will result in imprisonment of as much as two years, a nice of as a lot as 200,000 baht, or both.
At the beginning of this year, two K9 dogs from Thailand, Sierra and Sahara, went viral on Thai social media platforms after they have been deployed in Turkey to aid within the seek for earthquake victims..