Origin and Spread of African Swine Fever
African swine fever is a hemorrhagic viral disease affecting domestic and feral swine. The virus was first observed in Kenya, East Africa in the early 1920s. Since then, it has spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa and into other parts of Europe, Asia and now affecting pigs in China, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. The virus is very resilient and can survive for months in contaminated materials like carcasses, meat and digests. It can also spread through ticks over long distances. The widespread outbreak in China has been traced back to imported contaminated pork products. Once inside a country, the virus can spreads rapidly through direct contact between infected and healthy pigs.
Economic Impact on Pig Farming
African Swine Fever Vaccine poses a huge economic threat to global pork industry. There is no approved vaccine available and mortality rates in infected animals are close to 100 percent. The ongoing outbreak in China has resulted in culling of millions of pigs and a massive reduction in pig farming. China is the world's largest pork producer and consumer. Shortage of pork supply due to widespread infections has disrupted international pork trade and increased prices globally. Losses to the Chinese economy are estimated to be over $100 billion. Other affected Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam are heavily dependent on pork exports. Continued spread will severely impact livelihoods of smallholder pig farmers in these regions.
Developing an Effective Vaccine
Various research institutes and companies have been working on developing vaccines against African swine fever vaccine virus for past few decades. However, effective vaccination has proven challenging due to complex nature of the virus and ability to evade host immune response. Live-attenuated as well as inactivated vaccine candidates have shown limited or no protection in pig trials. Researchers have now shifted focus towards developing subunit and vectored vaccines utilising specific virus genes or proteins. Recent studies show that adjuvanted subunit vaccines based on capsid or envelope protein genes can provide significant level of protection against direct virus challenge. Viral vector based vaccines using other similar large DNA viruses are also being evaluated.
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