Poor Boar

There was an outbreak of African swine fever in Russia reported today... I find it interesting that a virus with Africa in its name has made its way to Russia, but in any case, the outbreak was discovered when, while monitoring in the district of Chechnya near the Georgia border, someone came across a pack of dead boars. Samples were taken from the dead animals and revealed African swine fever virus. So far, no other dead animals have been found, and hopefully the outbreak was limited to the one pack of boars.

African swine fever virus is in the Asfarviridae family. I wanted to post this article because I think it's interesting to learn about viruses outside of those the in the 24 families that infect humans. The virus is highly contagious and only causes disease in domestic and feral pigs. It is spread by direct contact with infected pigs or by feeding on infected meat. Humans are not affected. Read more about the outbreak here:

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/promed/f?p=2400:1001:18066743493624820175::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,40320