How to protect a pig farm from African Swine Fever.(ASF).

 How to protect a pig farm from African Swine Fever.(ASF).


ASF is all about contact ASF is spread by contact. Far less by the pig breathing the virus in as in Classical Swine Fever, so it should be easier to prevent and control.

 Think ‘contact’ in everything you plan to do and subsequently carry out on the premises. The contact is not just pig to pig, but what we humans do by allowing the ASF virus in through contact on the clothing equipment, vehicles, food deliveries, breeding stock and every other visit by an ‘outsider’ to or into your vulnerable farm premises.

 1) Keep everybody off your farm You will need discipline and tact to do this effectively. Quite brutally, you do not know where they have been! So do not risk it. The only permissible person as routine is the pig veterinarian and of all people he should take the necessary precautions.

Even so, do not allow his vehicle on to the farm. Have a parking spot outside the perimeter and if necessary, help carry his equipment in for him.

 There will be skilled artisans of course, electricity, roofing, plumbing, etc. who will need access. Keep their vehicles off the farm too and make it clear beforehand (for the sake of good relations) that they will have to use farm overalls and footwear and need their equipment mist-sprayed.

 2)An unbreakable farm perimeter defense. For the delivery of replacement stock (semen is safer than live pigs) and the collection of finished pigs, have designated areas on or just outside the farm perimeter.

On no account allow ‘helpful’ drivers (offering to assist with the loading) on to the premises. The same with bulk or bagged food and supplies.

 As soon as you can, set up food reception bulk bins using your own inlet hoses, not theirs; a covered site for bags and other bulky deliveries. All 3 on the farm boundary, for later inward transmission by your own staff, never theirs.




 3)Vehicles may bring in the ASF virus: Failure to consider the wheels and undersides of vehicles were a major omission in the previous viral outbreaks , and proved to be a major disease vector.

 One aspect of this even today is to remember that your own vehicles may bring in disease, so a separate entrance and exit for these is wise, where the essential minimum of an approved disinfectant dip at least as long as a tyre`s circumference is installed and kept fresh – remember rainfall.

 Bigger units, where the cost of viral ingress can be catastrophic because of their sheer size, should invest in a vehicle-operated under-spray device.

Workers’ transport, from bicycles upwards, should, after passing through the dip area, have their own parking area away from the usual paths and tracks used by staff between buildings.


 4) Fly control on pig farms is essential. While the spread of most viruses is involved in respiration, this route of infection is less likely with ASF.. The flies are a direct contact medium for ASF, so it is essential that they are kept under control.

There is plenty of advice on this. What should be done is to have a ‘fly expert’ on the farm so that one person has the responsibility of fly control –

which has the advantage of if not having forthcoming results, then training in this area can be instituted. Flies are indeed identified as a mechanical vector to spread ASF.