African swine fever: What is African swine fever - and could it infect YOU?
AFRICAN SWINE FEVER is a pig-borne threat with serious consequences in livestock, currently tearing through animals in Europe. What is African swine fever and could it infect humans?
Deadly pig disease: African Swine Fever
African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) is currently at large in Europe, affecting livestock with severe economic consequences. African swine fever cannot affect humans but remains a major threat in animals, with mortality close to 100 percent. The outbreak has been ongoing since 2014 but the number of observed cases have recently skyrocketed.
What is African Swine Fever?
According to the European Commission, African Swine Fever (ASF) is a “devastating infectious disease of pigs”.
Only pigs are currently affected by the virus, and no other animals or humans have ever contracted it.
The disease is commonly spread either via direct contact between pigs or by contaminated food.
Symptoms of ASFV include:
- High fever (up to 42C),
- Depression and loss of appetite,
- Reddening of the skin, particularly ears and snout
- Coughing and increased breathing
- Vomiting and diarrhoea (sometimes bloody)
- Abortions
- Discharges from the eyes and nose
- Mortality after one to two weeks, approaching 100 percent mortality
Those pigs which are able to survive the virus are carriers for life.
Could African Swine Fever affect humans?
ASFV is a member of a family of viruses named Asfarviridae, of which it is the only constituent member.
One research paper authored in the American Society for Microbiology’s Journal of Virology discovered other viruses in the group which could infect humans.
Researchers said: “We report the discovery of novel viral sequences (viruses) in human serum and sewage which are clearly related to the asfarvirus family but highly divergent (different) from ASFV.
“Detection of these sequences suggests that greater genetic diversity may exist among asfarviruses than previously thought and raises the possibility that human infection by asfarviruses may occur.”
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The researchers identified a strain of the virus which has been observed in human samples.
They said: “Although ASFV is not known to infect humans even where the virus is endemic, identification of ASFV-like sequences in serum from multiple human patients suggests that human infection may occur.
“Further studies are underway to screen patient samples for the presence of ASFV-like sequences.”
While another human-borne disease in the same group as ASFV could be identified, the effects and presentation will likely be completely different.