African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease in pigs.
African swine fever affects only members of the pig family ie livestock pigs, pet pigs and show pigs implying that humans humans and other animals can not get African swine fever. Even if it does not affect people, our activities play a role in the movement of this disease because studies show that human movements spread the disease around.
Disease survival
The disease is very resilient in the environment. African swine fever can survive for over 100 days in fresh and cured pork and 300 days in dried meat.
The virus can survive in soil or faeces for 11 days or longer.
Prevention and management
There is no vaccine available for African swine fever anywhere in the world. Even if one pig is infected, we can expect nearly 100% death of all pigs on the farm.
African swine fever severely affects foreign market of pork products and we can protect pigs by practising bio security, working with vets to keep pigs healthy and following proper importation laws.
