African plague can infect pigs of any age and breed. The disease instantly assumes an epidemic character and inflicts great economic damage on the pig industry. African swine fever leaves animals no chance, the mortality rate from the disease is 100%. In Russia, the infection is not registered, but there is a possibility of its introduction from other countries.
The African plague virus differs from the classic DNA size. There are several genotypes of viruses. They are found in lymph, blood, internal organs, secretions of sick pigs. The infection is resistant to decay and drying, the virus is cultured in the bone marrow and white blood cells of sick animals. It has hemadsorbing properties and a cytopathic effect.
In vivo, wild and domestic pigs of all age categories are susceptible to infection. African swine fever affects healthy animals when kept together with virus carriers. The factors of transmission of the viral pathogen are pastures, food, vehicles, which left the allocation of infected animals.
African swine fever is completely safe for humans and has nothing to do with the AH1N1 flu virus . You can safely use the pork of an infected animal, because the virus dies during heat treatment. Restrictions on the import of meat from quarantine areas are primarily associated with the danger of contracting the virus of the livestock of pigs in the importing country.
For the first time, African swine fever was recorded at the beginning of the last century in South Africa. In the beginning, about the disease, before its outbreaks in Portugal and Spain, it was known as a circulating infection, present only in the wild animal population. But it acquired particular acuity after the first cases of infection of domestic pigs with a mortality rate of up to 100%. A special insidiousness of the disease is the rapid change in the forms of infection among the livestock: from completely fatal to asymptomatic chronic carriage and unforeseen spread.
Today, there are no preventative measures by which African swine fever can be prevented, and the treatment of the disease is prohibited. When foci of infection appear, a total killing of infected pigs is performed using the bloodless method, as well as the destruction of the entire pig population within a radius of twenty kilometers from the outbreak. Sick, infected, and also animals in contact with them are eliminated by bloodless slaughter and burning of corpses.
In order to prevent infection, to preserve the health of pigs and, thus, to avoid losses, owners of farms must follow certain rules.
Firstly, it is required to provide access to the livestock of pigs for veterinary services to vaccinate animals against erysipelas and classical plague. It is necessary to keep livestock in closed premises: sheds, pigsties, and not to allow free movement in the territories of settlements and in forests.
Each decade, it is necessary to process the premises for the maintenance of the pigs themselves with funds from blood-sucking insects, fleas, lice, ticks, as well as to constantly fight rodents.
It is forbidden to bring pigs from other areas without the consent of the veterinary service, to use uncontaminated feed and slaughterhouse waste as food for animals. Any communications with disadvantaged areas should be limited and all cases of swine diseases should be reported .
If an African poor swine fever is struck by a dysfunctional economy, the virus of which can spread to other areas, quarantine is imposed. In this case, the destruction of the entire livestock of pigs is carried out. And the corpses of animals, the remains of their feed, manure and care items are burned. All rooms are disinfected.