With or without a Vaccine—A Review of Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Managing African Swine Fever in Resource-Constrained Smallholder Settings
Open Access
- 2 February 2021
- Vol. 9 (2), 116
- https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9020116
Abstract
The spectacular recent spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Eastern Europe and Asia has been strongly associated, as it is in the endemic areas in Africa, with free-ranging pig populations and low-biosecurity backyard pig farming. Managing the disease in wild boar populations and in circumstances where the disease in domestic pigs is largely driven by poverty is particularly challenging and may remain so even in the presence of effective vaccines. The only option currently available to prevent ASF is strict biosecurity. Among small-scale pig farmers biosecurity measures are often considered unaffordable or impossible to implement. However, as outbreaks of ASF are also unaffordable, the adoption of basic biosecurity measures is imperative to achieve control and prevent losses. Biosecurity measures can be adapted to fit smallholder contexts, culture and costs. A longer-term approach that could prove valuable particularly for free-ranging pig populations would be exploitation of innate resistance to the virus, which is fully effective in wild African suids and has been observed in some domestic pig populations in areas of prolonged endemicity. We explore available options for preventing ASF in terms of feasibility, practicality and affordability among domestic pig populations that are at greatest risk of exposure to ASF.This publication has 151 references indexed in Scilit:
- Peste des petits ruminants, the next eradicated animal disease?Veterinary Microbiology, 2013
- ARE HEALTH SHOCKS DIFFERENT? EVIDENCE FROM A MULTISHOCK SURVEY IN LAOSHealth Economics, 2013
- The spatial ecology of free-ranging domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) in western KenyaBMC Veterinary Research, 2013
- African Swine Fever: An Epidemiological UpdateTransboundary and Emerging Diseases, 2012
- The Persistence of African Swine Fever Virus in Field-Infected Ornithodoros erraticus during the ASF Endemic Period in PortugalPLOS ONE, 2011
- Pig genetic resource conservation: The Southern African perspectiveEcological Economics, 2010
- African swine fever: how can global spread be prevented?Philosophical Transactions B, 2009
- Foraging of Iberian fattening pigs grazing natural pasture in the dehesaLivestock Science, 2009
- African Swine Fever Virus Isolate, Georgia, 2007Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2008
- Biodegradable municipal solid waste: Characterization and potential use as animal feedstuffsWaste Management, 2005