Nepal reports first-ever African swine fever outbreak
Madrid, 19 may (EFE).- Nepal on Thursday confirmed its first-ever outbreak of African swine fever, as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported that nearly a thousand pigs had been killed by the disease in the Kathmandu valley.
Chandra Dhakal, the spokesperson of the Department of Livestock Services under Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, told EFE that the authorities had confirmed the outbreak and sent the details to the OIE.
The OIE, headquartered in Paris, said on Thursday that 934 pigs had been killed by the disease in six farms in the Kathmandu valley.
In total, the body reported 1,364 cases out of a total porcine population of 1,426 in the affected farms.
As per a study published in 2021 by Swiss journal Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, prepared by experts of Nepal’s Trubhuvan University, the pig farming industry in Nepal has grown significantly in recent years, and last year its porcine population stood at 1.4 million.
“The ability of the virus to resist harsh environmental conditions, paired with the traditional swill feeding system to raise pigs, could trigger havoc with impending severe losses in the Nepalese pork industry,” the study had warned.
The African swine fever is deadly for pigs and wild boar – with the mortality rate reaching up to 100 percent as per OIE – but harmless to humans and other animals.
The highly contagious hemorrhagic disease can cause death within two to 10 days of transmission.
So far there are no vaccines or cure available against the virus, with outbreaks having been reported across 73 countries spread over Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific, apart from Africa.
China detected its first outbreak in August 2018, after which the disease spread across the region: South Korea reported its first case in September 2019, while neighboring India detected first cases in 2020. In January 2022, the disease was detected in Thailand for the first time. EFE
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