State of Emergency Declared in Lithuania due to Deadly Swine Fever

EMERGING & RE-EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES
DEADLY AFRICAN SWINE FEVER
SCENARIOS 444, 333, 078,  011
.

Deadly African Swine Fever Spreads in Lithuania

Lithuanian government has declared a  state of emergency following an outbreak of the deadly African swine fever (ASF) in Ignalina region.

African swine fever was originally discovered in Lithuania in January 2014, and soon spread to neighboring Latvia resulting in high death rates among pigs in both countries.

Poland confirmed its first case of African swine fever (ASF) last week at a farm near Bialystok, close to Belarus border.

The admission by Polish authorities followed numerous reports of African Swine Fever cases among wild boar populations in northeast Poland.

Polish pork exports in the first quarter of 2014 dropped by at least 6 percent due to the ASF outbreak, with China and Russia imposing restrictions on imports.

Meanwhile, ASF has killed thousands of pigs in Adjumani District of Uganda since the outbreak of the viral disease in November 2013.

ASF Virus

• ASF spreads extremely rapidly because it’s highly contagious and has a complex epidemiology.
• The virus can survive in a protein environment, especially in meat and meat products, for long periods.
• The disease mortality rate is almost 100 percent.
• ASF has no vaccine as of now.