The African Swine Fever:
The African Swine Fever has stuck Meghalaya. Earlier, it had struck Mizoram.
- The African Swine Fever has killed 1,700 pigs in Mizoram in a month. It has now spread to Meghalaya and has killed three hundred pigs here so far.
- The Philippines Government recently placed the country under a State of Calamity for a year to address the impact of African Swine Fever.
- The first case of African Swine Fever was reported in 2019.
- It has killed more than three million hogs (domesticated pigs) since its outbreak in 2019.
About African Swine Fever:
- It was first detected in Africa in the 1920s.
- There is no cure for the disease and thus the only way to stop the disease from spreading is by culling the animals.
- It is not a threat to human beings.
- This is because the disease spreads from animal to animal.
- The African Swine Fever virus is resistant to low temperatures.
- It dies only when the hogs are heated to seventy to a hundred degrees Celsius.
- It is highly contagious and is a transboundary disease.
- Between 2016 and 2019, there were 10,211 outbreaks in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
- The disease is transmitted through direct contact.
- The biological vectors that transmit the disease are ticks and fomites.
