What is African swine fever?

At a press conference in Quezon City on Monday, September 9, 2019, Department of Agriculture employees join Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and DA Secretary William Dar in a boodle fight dubbed "Pork Challenge" to assure the public that it is safe to eat pork following reports on the entry of African Swine Fever in the Philippines. GMA News

Bad news for pigs, the African swine fever (ASF) is now confirmed in the country.

A highly contagious hemorrhagic disease, ASF infects pigs, warthogs, European wild boar and American wild pigs, according to World Organisation for Animal Health or Office International des Epizooties (OIE).

Here’s the good news: While it may affect the swine industry, it poses no threat to human health. “We want to reiterate to the public that ASF is not a threat to human health,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III emphasized.

ASF has no threat to human health even with direct contact with an infected animal or ingestion of contaminated pork product because the ASF virus is not transferrable to humans, according to the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).

ASF-infected animal may experience high fever, loss of appetite, hemorrhages in the skin and internal organs, and death in two to ten days on average. Mortality rates may be as high as 100 percent, the OIE said.

Test results done at the World Reference Laboratory in Pirbright, England showed that the majority of pigs that died last month in hog farms in three barangays in Rizal province were positive of the ASF virus.

According to the Department of Agriculture, any misstep in dealing with the presence of ASF could erode the gains and competitiveness of the country’s P260-billion swine industry of which backyard hog raisers account for 65%.

The industry provides for and sustains the livelihood of millions of Filipino families, the DA noted.

ASF is responsible for serious production and economic losses, according to the OIE.

ASF and swine flu

ASF is not swine influenza or swine flu, the OIE noted.

Swine influenza is a highly contagious viral infection of pigs caused by influenza A viruses.

Unlike ASF, swine flu is harmful to human health. Swine flu-infected humans may experience fever, cough (usually dry), nasal secretions, fatigue, and headache.

ASF is “food-borne” unlike swine flu which can be transmitted through contact with an infected animal.

Transmission

Even if ASF is no threat to human health, people may unwittingly help transmit the ASF virus.

Left-over pork products contaminated with ASF and collected as swill or kanin-baboy is a sure way of transmitting the disease to other pigs.

ASF is usually introduced into a herd when they were fed with uncooked or undercooked virus-contaminated pork, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

The virus can quickly spread between and among pigs by direct contact with other infected hogs.

ASF-infected pigs experience high fever, depression, loss of appetite, redness of ears, abdomen, and legs, vomiting, and diarrhea that usually lead to death.

Unconfirmed to confirmed

In August, the DA placed three barangays in Rizal under quarantine after around 100 hogs died in the area.

Through its attached agency, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the Agriculture department then implemented the “1-7-10 Protocol”—a quarantine and monitoring scheme to control the movement of pork and pork products, including live animals, to prevent what was then an unconfirmed “economic disease” from spreading beyond the immediate vicinity.

Under the protocol, quarantine checkpoints are set up in areas within a 1-kilometer radius of suspected farms. Within the 7-kilometer radius, authorities conduct surveillance and limiting animal movement. Farm owners within the 10-kilometer radius are mandated to report any disease to the DA.

The DA collected blood samples of the suspected pigs and forwarded them to the World Reference Laboratory in Pirbright, England for a polymerase chain reaction test to determine the cause of the hogs’ sudden illness and death.

Out of the20 samples, 14 turned out positive of the ASF virus.

The global ASF situation

According to OIE, at least 18 countries have confirmed ASF outbreaks as of August 2019

Europe has the most number of countries with ASF infection including Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

Six countries in Asia—China, North Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Russia, and Vietnam were also penetrated by the ASF virus. The Philippines is now the seventh ASF-country.

In Africa, Zimbabwe and South Africa were also positive of ASF presence.

From August 2 to 29, the OIE has noted that at least 216,997 animals have died or been killed due to ASF. —VDS, GMA News