Current Events > African Swine Fever, killer of nearly a billion pigs worldwide, has mutated

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-10/african-swine-fever-mutates-littproud-issues-warning/13140142

A pig-killing disease that has wiped out almost a billion pigs worldwide has mutated, establishing new variants.

Australia's chief vet Mark Schipp said the new variant could have been established through the use of an illegal vaccine.

"As with any virus, we expect that there will be mutations and evolution of the virus in new environments, and it may be that this is a natural variation," he said.

"But the deletions that we're seeing in this virus are the same deletions that are being used in the development of vaccines."

African Swine Fever does not yet have a vaccine.

"To develop a vaccine, they have been deleting specific genes and those specific gene deletions are some of those we're seeing in the new variant, so it may be that this is arriving from illegal use of vaccines," Dr Schipp said.

Ahead of Chinese New Year celebrations, the Federal Government is calling for heightened biosecurity to ensure African swine fever (ASF), a disease that would devastate the pork industry, does not enter Australia.

"Variants are showing less obvious signs of the disease which increases the likelihood of it going undetected and uncontrolled," said Agriculture Minister David Littleproud.

"The new variant is actually causing less mortality," Dr Schipp said.

"[It is] a disease of chronic fatigue, slow growth, [and] reduced fertility so if we're relying on seeing lots of dead pigs as the first sign, we're not going to see that sign."

Mr Littleproud said the emergence of new variants of the virus had reportedly been detected in Asia but did not specify where.

More than 11,600 outbreaks of ASF have been detected in Asia since 2018, and incursion in Australia could cost the domestic economy up to $2 billion over five years, according to a study funded by Australian Pork Limited.

There are currently more than 3,000 ongoing outbreaks of ASF in Asia.

It is a contagious viral disease which affects domestic and wild pigs, but not humans.

In addition to high fever, symptoms include internal bleeding and haemorrhages on the skin and the virus is estimated to have killed 800 million pigs worldwide.

The Government and pork industry fear that the disease, which is transmitted in pork products, could enter Australia via mail or travellers.

In the 14 months until the end of 2020, more than 40 tonnes of pork products were intercepted from air travellers, and more than 9t were intercepted at Australian mail centres.

In less than two years, since new biosecurity penalties were introduced, 14 travellers have been kicked out of Australia and had their visas cancelled for attempting to illegally import produce.

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What if it mutates to attack us, and the pork industry whines about its name?

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If it mutates to attack us we're straight up done as a species so it won't matter.
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Bio1590 posted...

If it mutates to attack us we're straight up done as a species so it won't matter.

he's right. having no pork will be the least of our worries.
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What kind of sick bastard kills pigs?

Kills them but not to eat them, obviously.

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divot1338 posted...

Kills them but not to eat them

it's a waste of food and disrespect to the animal.
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Damn,this reminds me of the "dont eat pork" topic last week. Internal bleeding and other symptoms sound terrifying,like Ebola.


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modena posted...

Damn,this reminds me of the "dont eat pork" topic last week. Internal bleeding and other symptoms sound terrifying,like Ebola.

I mean this is exactly why we (as a species) shouldn't be eating pork on a mass, world-wide scale. It's only a matter of time before this makes it to Australia and the Americas and if it ever does evolve to infect humans we really are doomed.
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