Farmscape for September 21, 2021

Pork producers are being encouraged to watch for and report to their veterinarians any symptoms that might be attributable to African Swine Fever.
"Signs to Look for in Your Pigs" was discussed last week as part of a five-part series of African Swine Fever Action Week seminars hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Dr. Peter Fernandez, with PJF AgroStrategies Consulting, says symptoms of the disease will range from peracute to acute to subacute to chronic.

Clip-Dr. Peter Fernandez-PJF AgroStrategies Consulting:
Some signs of ASF will look like other diseases already present in the U.S. thus complicating detection and diagnosis so the point is many signs will not be specific to ASF.
This is why rapid inspection by a qualified veterinarian is important in the early detection and response to this disease with confirmation by state and federal counterparts.
The most likely presentation of ASF in domestic pigs in the U.S. will be associated with highly virulent or moderately virulent strains of the virus currently circulating in Europe and Asia.
The forms of the disease we will most likely see are going to be acute or subacute.
What does that really mean?
These are the most commonly described forms of the disease and what they are describing here is the onset or the severity.
That's what we mean by the forms and they are associated with different categorizations of strains.
Remember, observable disease in a pig or in any animal is the result of the agent, in the case the ASF strain, and the host, in the case the pig, and every individual host will have varying levels of susceptibility so in one herd you may see peracute, acute and subacute disease all at the same time.

Dr. Fernandez says you have to have good surveillance, you have to have a way to demonstrate it and you have to be able to convince your counterparts that what you're doing is protecting them from the disease.
He stresses biosecurity is important, not just for ASF but for any number of diseases that affect swine.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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