Kerala: African swine fever reported in Wayanad

Thiruvananthapuram, July 22: African swine fever has been reported from two farms at Mananthavady in Kerala's Wayanad district, officials said on Friday.

The disease was confirmed among pigs of two farms in the district after the samples were tested at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal.

An official from the Animal Husbandry Department told PTI that the samples were sent for testing after pigs at one of the farms died en masse.

"Now the test result has confirmed the infection. Directions have been issued to cull 300 pigs of the second farm," the official said.

The Department said steps are being taken to prevent the disease from being spread.

The state had earlier this month tightened bio-security measures following an alert from the Centre that African swine fever had been reported in Bihar and a few northeastern states.

African swine fever is a highly contagious and fatal viral disease affecting domestic pigs.

Is African swine fever dangerous to humans?

African swine fever does not affect humans as it is a non-zoonotic disease, that is, a disease of animals that does not infect humans. Viruses have surface proteins on the outside which must bind to a host cell in order to enter and replicate. Different species of animals have different proteins on the outside of their cells and certain viruses can only bind to the surface of cells in particular species of animals.

The African Swine Flu virus can only attach to and enter specific cells in pigs but not cells in the human body. Since the discovery of the virus, there has so far been no evidence of mutation causing cross-species transmission to humans in the past century.