Context

Vietnam has developed an African swine fever vaccine for pigs in partnership with the United States, and is aiming to become the first global commercial exporter.

About

African swine fever:

• African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs.
• In its acute form, the disease generally results in high mortality.
• ASF is a different disease to swine flu. African swine fever is harmless to humans.
• It originated in Africa before spreading to Europe and Asia and has killed hundreds of millions of pigs globally.
• It is caused by a large DNA virus of the Asfarviridae family, which also infects ticks of the genus.
• Transmission: Its routes of transmission include direct contact with an infected or wild pig (alive or dead), indirect contact through ingestion of contaminated material such as food waste, feed or garbage, or through biological vectors such as ticks.
• Symptoms:
  • The disease is characterised by sudden deaths in pigs. Its symptoms include:
  • vomiting
  • diarrhoea (sometimes bloody)
  • reddening or darkening of the skin, particularly ears and snout
  • gummed up eyes
  • laboured breathing and coughing
  • abortion, still births and weak litters
  • weakness and unwillingness to stand

African Swine Fever (ASF) Vaccine:

• African swine fever, one of the most devastating livestock diseases, was first detected in Vietnam in February 2019 and forced the country to cull around 20% of its hog herd.
• With immunity lasting six months, the vaccine will be a shield for hog-raising industry and pig production globally.