In recent news, South Korea is the latest country that has been affected by African swine fever. Aside from South Korea, the disease had spread over seven other countries across Asia, including North Korea, the Philippines, and China.
What is African swine fever?
According to the World Organization for Animal Health, African swine fever is fatal for pigs and wild boars. African swine fever is a virus that has a large double-stranded DNA from the Asfarviridae family. This virus is the causative agent that leads to hemorrhagic fever with high rates of mortality among its hosts.
The African swine fever virus specifically affects domestic pigs, warthogs, bush pigs, and wild pigs. It does not cause any disease to human beings. The first occurrence of African swine fever was reported to have been in 1907 but it was first described in detail in 1921 in Kenya. Until the year 1957, this virus was confined within the bounds of Africa. The first outbreak of African swine fever was in Lisbon, Portugal. Since then other African swine fever outbreaks have been recorded across Europe. The most recent outbreak in South Korea affected several pigs in a farm in Paju, Gyeonggi as confirmed by the agriculture ministry. In this light, the South Korean government conducted a lockdown on the movement of pigs in slaughterhouses and farms to confine the spread of the deadly disease. They also raised the alarm of for animal disease alert to "severe." It was also reported that about 4,000 hogs from three farms, including the farm in Paju, will be culled as a preventive measure. The disease is said to be fatal which can be easily transmitted in many ways such as contamination of feeds and food waste. A regional manager of the UN's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, Wantanee Kalpravidh, reported that it was very difficult to control the spread of African swine fever within Asia due to the unstoppable smuggling of pork meat and products across the borders. Thus, all countries are at high risk of this viral outbreak. Despite this threat, Kalpravidh reiterated that there should not be any concern on food safety and public health because the virus does not pose any danger on humans. The only concern probably lies in the supply of safe and virus-free pork products. It may be a delicious part of a meal but it is best to wait until preliminary examinations are completed on all pig farms within the affected areas.
