Abstract
The African swine fever virus (ASFV) has been circulating in and ravaging the swine industry in Cameroon for decades. Annual ASFV epidemics occur in Cameroon from April to August. With the absence of vaccines and antiviral drugs against this virus, biosecurity has been the only effective control tool available. When properly applied, biosecurity measures allow control of the spread of ASFV and the eventual eradication of this virus. Many outbreak investigations by PCR were effected in Cameroon, with ASFV prevalences ranging from 15.23% to 42.80%. Considering that pre-outbreak studies are not available for Cameroon, the present study aimed at assessing the status of the animals before an outbreak. A two-stage cluster sampling study was conducted from January to March 2020. In this study, the primary unit was the farm and the secondary unit was the individual animals. In all, 97 farms were visited and 277 samples were collected. Pre-outbreak ASFV prevalence, as assessed by PCR, was 9.75%. In parallel, data were collected using a survey of farm characteristics, awareness and attitude of the farmers toward ASF. The survey results showed that 34.1% of the farms were backyard cemented piggeries with the majority having less than 10 pigs (54.1%). The majority of farmers (90.6%) had heard of and knew about the disease caused by ASF. Though 69.4% of the farmers were uninformed on the clinical signs of ASF, 73.6% of them did treat sick pigs presenting similar clinical signs to ASF (with no risk of mortality) with antibiotics, while 79.4% did not treat but sold the pigs presenting clinical signs similar to ASF with an increased risk of mortality. Sixty-three percent of the farmers had reported a case of ASF in the past and believed that reporting was useful and had no negative consequences on other farmers or third parties. We established that poor implementation of biosecurity measures in addition to poor training are contributing factors to the enzootic nature of ASFV in Cameroon and, thus, the spread of ASFV. Hence, pig farmers in Cameroon must be properly trained in ASFV awareness and the impact thereof on pig production. Furthermore, training will also facilitate the successful implementation of biosecurity measures to contain ASFV outbreaks.
Highlights
Cameroon has the largest pig population in central Africa, with over 3.2 million pigs
The study focused on the principal biosecurity measures used by the farmers before, during and after an African swine fever virus (ASFV) outbreak
Of the 143 animals sampled in the southwest region, 25 were positive for ASFV while only one was a positive animal in the case of the littoral (1/23 samples), west regions (1/20 samples) and northwest (0/77) regions
Summary
Cameroon has the largest pig population in central Africa, with over 3.2 million pigs. Domestic demand for pork increased from 7.286 tons in 2008 to 15.547 tons in 2015 as opposed to very little increase in pork production. This led to massive pork imports from Tchad in 2002 [4]. As of 2009, 70% of the pig farmers operated in a traditional production system with poor biosecurity measures, while 20% and 10% were involved in the semi-intensive and intensive systems, respectively [4]. Most of the piggeries were made of wood (60%) of which 57.8% had cemented floors, 22% were free-range pigs. 57.8% of the piggeries fed the pigs twice daily with compounded feed. A 2013 study showed a shift of 11.1% to 70%, respectively, from traditional to mostly semi-intensive husbandry practices [6]
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