-DATE-
19710630
-YEAR-
1971
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
INTERVIEW
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
SWINE FEVER CAUSED BY SABOTAGE
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA PRENSA LATINA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19710701
-TEXT-
CASTRO SUGGESTS SWINE FEVER CAUSED BY SABOTAGE

Havana RESNA LATINA in English 2045 GMT 30 Jun 71 C--FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

[Excerpts] Havana, June 30 (PL)--The transport workers plenary assembly
concluded Monday night with a speech by the Cuban prime minister, Major
Fidel Castro, in which he spoke chiefly of transport problems and of the
porcine fever (?which) recently appeared in the province of Havana.

Fidel Castro spoke for two hours and forty minutes before a thousand
workers in the theatre of the Cuban Workers Confederation.

Cuba's main problems in transport, said the prime minister, are the product
of sudden shift from the ox to the machine.

In another part of his speech the prime minister said that a the epidemic
of African porcine fever which has appeared in the Province of Havana could
very well be the work of sabotage. Castro said that recently Cuban
counterrevolutionaries in the Unites States and the CIA have talked of the
possibility of using a virus to sabotage the Cuban economy.

However, it is also possible that the disease was transmitted by accident,
by ship or plane or via the comings and goings of the diplomatic corps.

Castro said that energetic measures must be taken to establish strict
sanitary controls in the ports.

Castro stated that 4 or 5 weeks separated the first appearance of the
disease and the actual discovery of the epidemic, because of the lack of
sufficient laboratories in the veterinary medicine sector.

This circumstance favored the spread of the epidemic. The prime minister
said that in the Province of Havana where the disease appeared, there were
20,000 pigs imported from Canada. Another 20,000 pigs are being raised in
other provinces, but these are not threatened by the disease.

Fidel Castro said that strict control could wipe out the epidemic and that
the appearance of the disease was immediately communicated to the proper
international organizations.
-END-