What is African Swine Fever?
African swine fever (‘ASF’) is a highly contagious viral disease which infects and kills wild and domestic pigs. While ASF is NOT a risk to human health, it affects animal welfare, causes severe production and economic losses, and can threaten food security. Fiji is free from ASF however; carelessness can spread the disease and bring the disease into Fiji.

Occurrence of ASF
African swine fever is enzootic in most countries such as Asia, Africa and Europe. A total of 23 Countries/Territories notified new or ongoing outbreaks to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE); 12 in Europe (Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine); 9 in Asia (China, Indonesia, Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of), Korea (Republic of), Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Timor-Leste and Vietnam) and 2 in Africa (Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa).

The most recent outbreak of ASF was recorded in Papua New Guinea (‘PNG’) and officially reported to OIE on 30 March 2020. A total of 396 free ranging pigs were reported dead while 700 susceptible cases were recorded in PNG.