Hong Kong will cull 3,000 pigs after detecting African swine fever at a local pig farm, placing the city on alert for a further spread.
The virus was first discovered last week at a facility in Yuen Long and the transporting of pigs from the farm has been suspended, according to Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department. The 3,000 pigs will be culled “as soon as possible” and owners will be compensated, the department said on Tuesday.
Hong Kong sources its pigs largely from mainland China, which reported its first African swine fever outbreak in 2018.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large, double-stranded DNA virus in the Asfarviridae family.” It is the causative agent of African swine fever (ASF). The virus causes a hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in domestic pigs; some isolates can cause death of animals as quickly as a week after infection.
It persistently infects its natural hosts, warthogs, bushpigs, and soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros, which likely act as a vector, with no disease signs.2 It does not [2] cause disease in humans.13114 ASFV is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and exists in the wild through a cycle of infection between ticks and wild pigs, bushpigs, and warthogs.
The disease was first described after Euro an settlers brought pigs into areas endemic with ASFV, and as such, is an example of an emerging infectious disease.
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