African Swine Fever a Hot Topic in Banff

By Geoff Geddes, for Swine Innovation Porc

“In January, 2014 at the Banff Pork Seminar, we announced that PED had come to Canada,” said Dr. Brockhoff. “Today, we’re announcing that PED has arrived in Alberta. That disease has been an excellent teacher when it comes to our foreign animal disease preparedness, and gives us much to think about as we turn our attention to ASF.”

African Swine Fever first entered Europe in 1957, circulated slowly until the mid-1980s, and was thought to be eradicated before being brought to the nation of Georgia in 2007 via international waste. Since then, it has moved slowly and steadily across Eastern Europe and into China.

As recently as six months ago, few in North America had even heard of ASF, largely because it was not affecting areas of importance for global pork production. With the disease’s appearance in countries like China and Belgium, however, and its growing proximity to France and Germany, the issue is hitting closer to home.

“The virus is moved largely by human activity,” said Dr. Brockhoff. “We transport it around the planet by carrying infected food across borders, moving pigs or leaving garbage where we shouldn’t.”

You can’t stop what you can’t spot

So what could be worse than a spreading, contagious and fatal pig disease threat? How about one that is hard to spot?

“On paper, most vets would say that ASF should be easy to see. In reality, though, at farms where it breaks it often survives for days or weeks before anyone detects it, as it can look like so many other diseases.”

It all adds up to what Dr. Brockhoff calls an “increasing concern and significant risk to the Canadian pork sector”. ASF circulates naturally in different wild pig populations in Africa like warthogs and bush pigs. Those animals don’t die from the disease, but rather act as reservoirs, giving the virus a chance to move on. By contrast, ASF would kill domestic pigs in Canada and the United States.