Tuesday, February 9, 2010 22:10

Pigs are held at the main slaughterhouse in Cairo, Egypt, April 30, 2009. Photo: REUTERS

African Swine Fever discovered in Nigeria

By Ifedayo Adebayo

June 10, 2009 06:50PM

The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed the report that African Swine Fever has been discovered in a certain part of Delta State.

The Ministry, in a report by the special assistant on communication to the minister of health, Niyi Ojuolape, said the presence of the disease has been confirmed after consultation with the Delta State Ministries of Health and Agriculture.

The ministry, however, said that African Swine Fever (ASF) affects only pigs and that it does not affect humans in any way. It said also that it is not in any way related to the H1N1 influenza strain, otherwise known as swine fever, which has been ravaging the health world.

Mr. Ojuolape, however, assured the public that the case of Swine Flu has not been reported in Nigeria and that the government is doing a lot to monitor the events with a view to handling any eventuality effectively.

Also, the Delta State Ministry of Agriculture has quarantined the affected piggery and has started culling the affected pigs to prevent the disease from spreading to other pigs.

African Swine Fever (ASF) is however, a highly contagious, generalised disease of pigs caused by an iridovirus that exhibits varying virulence between strains, although different serotypes cannot be identified.

Experts say that the virus resists inactivation and can persist in meat up to 15 weeks, processed ham up to six months and up to one month in contaminated pens. It is endemic in most of Southern Africa, and on the Iberian peninsula of Europe. Since the 1960s, outbreaks have occurred in France, Italy, Malta, Belgium, Holland, Cuba, Domican Republic and Haiti.

Treatment and vaccine have not been discovered till date. The United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibit the importation of live hogs and uncooked pork from any country where ASF exists, except if the products are commercially canned, hermetically sealed, and fully sterilised so it remains shelf stable without refrigeration; and the processes used have been proven to inactivate the virus.

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Reader Comments (3)

Posted by How Ignorant! on Jun 10 2009

I visited my Doctor about 4 weeks ago and he said that 5 cases of Swine Flu had been reported in Enugu and that I was to be very careful. I asked why it hadn't been reported in the news and he said the Government would never report such. This is extremely dangerous since there is no cure and people can die. Or is it going to be a case of "such diseases do not affect Africans"!

Posted by tata on Jun 10 2009

which swine flu? the story above is correct. there is a difference between asf and the swine flu that affects humans... it is also incorrect that the nigerian govt in all his notoriety would not announce such...look at it the nigerian way and imagine the vote that would be spent to control it

Posted by Gbemi Akinbode on Jun 10 2009

African Swine Fever is completely different from swine flu, however its wrong to say "it does not affect humans in any way". Hundreds of Nigerian pig farmers lost everything they had during the two ASF epidemics which occurred in the last ten years. The livestock industry was completely devastated. This disease also has serious implications for food security in a country like ours where people are already starving. The fact that the government isn't scrambling to contain this just shows how useless and disconnected they are.