The entire human race is trying to find every single possible way to fight coronavirus, and on top of that new African swine fever virus (ASFV) started showing signs. Since February 2020 to 5th May, almost 2800 pigs died in Assam, India. This virus causes high fever with huge mortality rates among the wild pigs. Once they are infected, animals can die within a week. This disease was first detected in Kenya in 1909 and that\’s why it\’s named after African continent.
The basic signs and symptoms are high fever, depression, redness of the skin, physical weakness. Though it takes about 6-12 days to show the signs after been infected, it already killed so many pigs. Right now Assam government is trying to save the pig population of their state. Experts are saying that this virus might have come from China, but there is no sure lead found on this as of now. From 2018 to 2020, almost 60% of China’s pig population has been claimed by this fatal disease.
Generally, this flu was found in wild pigs, but in Assam, many domestic pigs died due to this virus. As per the pig census report 2019, currently, Assam has over 30 lakhs pigs. American Society for Microbiology has been conducting intense research on this flu. They confirmed that currently they don\’t have a vaccine and that\’s why this virus flu is claiming pigs lives in Eastern Europe and South-East Asia. It is highly contagious and deadly for the pigs.
In 2007, an outbreak of ASFV started in the Republic of Georgia. This happened outside Africa and Sardinia for the first time. None of the historical vaccines showed any significant difference to cope with ASFV. This virus cannot survive in hot and sunny weather but can stay up to 6 months in cold countries. Dr Douglas P Gladue is saying that the recent vaccines are quite promising and showing complete protection again this flu.
Linda Dixon, an eminent virologist at PirBright Institute UK is studying genotype 1 virus; Lucilla Steinaa from International Livestock Research Institute focusing on genotypes 9 and 10; University of Illinois based virologist Daniel Rock is researching on protective antigens to create a stronger and effective vaccine in the coming days.
People from various parts of the world are trying to come up with a vaccine to cope with this flu. But till then can we save all the innocent pigs? Are they going to be an extinct race? Are they also going to suffer the same fate as coronavirus-infected humans? Can this be transferred to humans if they consume infected pigs? There are hundreds of questions, but answers are yet to come.