The pig world continues to be challenged by the dreadful African Swine Fever infection in multiple countries. ASF was introduced to China in summer 2018 and during the 2019 calendar year over 190 million pigs were destroyed by this extremely virulent and deadly pathogen.
I wanted to cite and provide this reference for our clients who are interested in the history of ASF, which is a foreign animal disease to the United States – it has never entered or been diagnosed in North America, including Mexico, Canada and the USA
“African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious viral disease of swine which causes high mortality, approaching 100%, in domestic pigs. ASF is caused by a large, double stranded DNA virus, ASF virus (ASFV), which replicates predominantly in the cytoplasm of macrophages and is the only member of the Asfarviridae family, genus Asfivirus. The natural hosts of this virus include wild pigs and arthropod vectors of the Ornithodoros genus (which are ticks).”
ASF is a very large and complex virus. See image.
If you have questions about ASF or the steps being taken by the US Pork Industry and the USDA, please contact us. We would be happy to answer any questions.
There have been a large number of newspaper and other articles about African Swine Fever. One clear indication of how disastrous the disease has been in China comes from this article (A quarter of all pigs have died this year due to African swine fever | New Scientist) if you aren't aware yet of the scope of the problem.