On Tuesday, April 21st, ChileCarne held a video conference with Óscar Camacho, Head of the Border Controls Department of the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), to review the progress in the training of the 10 dogs that the Association donated to SAG’s Canine Brigade, which supports border controls at Chile’s international airport and ports.
In this regard, Óscar Camacho pointed out that “the dogs have been making progress in their training and the first group of five could start working at Santiago’s International Airport as soon as July.” This is one of the measures implemented by ChileCarne in collaboration with SAG to prevent African swine fever (ASF) from entering the country.
During the video conference, both institutions coordinated other measures that should resume when Santiago’s International Airport restarts operations, such as the outreach campaign during peak travel periods. It consists of ads shown on digital screens installed in strategic areas of the airport for passengers to become aware of the fact that animal products may not enter the country. The installation of shoe sanitizing mats should also resume. They are identical to the ones used at Tokyo and Japan airports, and should be used by all passengers and crew members.
ChileCarne’s President, Juan Carlos Domínguez, highlighted that “we cannot let our guard down to the African swine fever, which continues to spread in Europe and Asia. We must continue the excellent joint work SAG and the pork and poultry industry have been doing. I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight and thank the invaluable work carried out by all of SAG’s officials at border checkpoints, as well as in our facilities. Their effort facilitates the import of raw materials that are the basis of our production process, such as corn and soy, and it also allows us to keep ensuring the distribution of meat products both in Chile and international markets.”[:]
