African Swine Fever Leads to One Million Pig Deaths

(ROME, ITALY) Seven more provinces in Vietnam reported confirmed cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) last week. According to estimates from the World Food and Ag Organization (FAO) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), they join provinces in China and Mongolia that also have reported confirmed cases of the deadly swine disease. More than one million pigs have been culled from the region since the outbreak began back in August. Studies show that 62 percent of the original events were related to swill feeding. Swill feeding is the practice of feeding food waste as a cheap source of food for pigs. The risk is from infectious disease, particularly exotic viral diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Classical Swine Fever and led to the devastating outbreaks of FMD in the UK in 1967 and 2001, and in South Africa in 2000. African swine fever virus is a contagious viral disease impacting only pigs, not people, so it is not a public health threat or food safety concern and there has never been a reported case in the United States.