Abstract
African Swine Fever (ASF) is an important contagious haemorrhagic viral disease affecting swine whose notification is mandatory due to its high mortality rates and the great sanitary and socioeconomic impact it has on international trade in animal and swine products.This disease only affects porcine species, both wild and domestic, and produces a variety of clinical signs such as fever and functional disorders of the digestive and respiratory systems. Lesions are mainly characterized by congestive-haemorrhagic alterations. ASF epidemiology varies significantly between countries, regions and continents, since it depends on the characteristics of the virus in circulation, the presence of wild hosts and reservoirs, environmental conditions and human social behaviour. Furthermore, a specific host will not necessarily always play the same active role in the spread and maintenance of ASF in a particular area.Currently, ASF is endemic in most sub-Saharan African countries where wild hosts and tick vectors (Ornithodoros) play an important role acting as biological reservoirs for the virus. In Europe, the disease has been endemic since 1978 on the island of Sardinia (Italy) and since 2007, when it was first reported in Georgia, in a number of Eastern European countries. It is also endemic in certain regions of the Russia Federation, where domestic pig and wild boar populations are widely affected. By contrast, in the affected eastern European Union (EU) countries where ASF is currently as epidemic, the on-going spread of the disease affects mainly wild boar populations located in restricted areas and, to a much less extent, domestic pigs. Unlike most livestock diseases, no vaccine or specific treatment is currently available for ASF. Therefore, disease control is mainly based on early detection and the application of strict sanitary and biosecurity measures. Epidemiology of ASF is very complex by the existence of different virus circulating, reservoirs and a number of scenarios, and the on-going spread of the disease through Africa and Europe. Survivor pigs can remain persistently infected for months which may contribute to virus transmission and thus the spread and maintenance of the disease, thereby complicating attempts to control it.
Highlights
African swine fever (ASF) is one the most important of all swine diseases due to its significant sanitary and socioeconomic consequences
The transmission of the ASF virus occurs via a number of complex epidemiological scenarios that depend on the presence of the presence of reservoirs, wild Suidae and soft ticks (Ornithodoros moubata), and domestic pig hosts, certain types of animal production and husbandry, and social behaviour. ln eastern and southern Africa, where all the 22 ASFV genotypes are known to circulate, the disease is maintained by the concurrent existence of transmission cycles involving asymptomatic wild Suidae (Phacochoerus and Potamochoerus spp.), soft ticks (O. porcinus) and domestic pigs
Since no vaccine is currently available, prevention and control must be based on early detection and strict sanitary measures
Summary
African swine fever (ASF) is one the most important of all swine diseases due to its significant sanitary and socioeconomic consequences. The transmission of the ASF virus occurs via a number of complex epidemiological scenarios that depend on the presence of the presence of reservoirs, wild Suidae and soft ticks (Ornithodoros moubata), and domestic pig hosts, certain types of animal production and husbandry, and social behaviour.
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