Abstract
The spectacular recent spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Eastern Europe and Asia has been strongly associated, as it is in the endemic areas in Africa, with free-ranging pig populations and low-biosecurity backyard pig farming. Managing the disease in wild boar populations and in circumstances where the disease in domestic pigs is largely driven by poverty is particularly challenging and may remain so even in the presence of effective vaccines. The only option currently available to prevent ASF is strict biosecurity. Among small-scale pig farmers biosecurity measures are often considered unaffordable or impossible to implement. However, as outbreaks of ASF are also unaffordable, the adoption of basic biosecurity measures is imperative to achieve control and prevent losses. Biosecurity measures can be adapted to fit smallholder contexts, culture and costs. A longer-term approach that could prove valuable particularly for free-ranging pig populations would be exploitation of innate resistance to the virus, which is fully effective in wild African suids and has been observed in some domestic pig populations in areas of prolonged endemicity. We explore available options for preventing ASF in terms of feasibility, practicality and affordability among domestic pig populations that are at greatest risk of exposure to ASF.
Highlights
African swine fever (ASF) is a lethal haemorrhagic fever of pigs and Eurasian wild boars (Sus scrofa) that evolved in south-eastern Africa in a sylvatic cycle between common warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) and argasid ticks of the Ornithodoros moubata species complex that live in their burrows [1,2]
Vaccines 2021, 9, 116 pig production activities, with more than 80% of the pigs in many developing countries raised in the smallholder sector, approaches to improve implementation of feasible and sustainable biosecurity measures in traditional free-range and backyard pig production and in the value chains linked to these systems is crucial
As shown in the previous sections, human activities drive ASF transmission, including in the current outbreaks occurring across four continents, and control can be achieved by applying basic biosecurity measures
Summary
African swine fever (ASF) is a lethal haemorrhagic fever of pigs and Eurasian wild boars (Sus scrofa) that evolved in south-eastern Africa in a sylvatic cycle between common warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) and argasid ticks of the Ornithodoros moubata species complex that live in their burrows [1,2]. In the areas of southern, central and eastern Africa where ASF is endemic, it is likely that alternatives to vaccination may always offer the best option for sustainable disease control. This is because the majority of the domestic pigs in these areas are raised in free-range systems by poor farmers on small-scale holdings, making successful vaccination a challenge. Not a short-term solution, exploitation of innate resistance to the pathogenic effects of the virus may offer a sustainable solution for managing ASF, where selection for high productivity traits is not important, as in free-ranging domestic pigs and potentially in wild boars. We consider innate resistance to ASF as a complementary approach to improved pig production in the smallholder section in the longer term
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