Context
Thailand has detected African swine fever in a surface swab sample collected at a slaughterhouse in Nakhon Pathom province, marking the country's first official confirmation of the disease.
What is African Swine Fever?
- African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs. In its acute form the disease generally results in high mortality.
- ASF is a different disease to swine flu. It does not affect humans.
Transmission
- Its routes of transmission include direct contact with an infected or wild pig (alive or dead), indirect contact through ingestion of contaminated material such as food waste, feed or garbage, or through biological vectors such as ticks.
Symptoms
The disease is characterised by sudden deaths in pigs. Its symptoms include:
- vomiting
- diarrhoea (sometimes bloody)
- reddening or darkening of the skin, particularly ears and snout
- gummed up eyes
- laboured breathing and coughing
- abortion, still births and weak litters
- weakness and unwillingness to stand
