First case of African swine fever detected in Germany

African swine fever (ASF), first identified in Kenya in the 1920s [3], is a hemorrhagic fever caused by a large (170-190kb), double stranded DNA virus. African swine fever was first identified in Georgia in 2007, and since then has spread by human activity as well as by movement of infected boars. In 2018 and 2019, ASF infections were detected in some areas of Europe including Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, and Slovakia and, in November of 2019, in Poland. Then, on 10 September 2020, the first case ever was confirmed in Germany, near the border of Poland [4].  

While the risk of the virus spreading to humans via mutation is “extremely low,” the economic dangers are real and there are potential impacts on human health.  China, the world’s largest producer of pork, had a virus outbreak beginning in 2007 that drastically increased the prices of pork products [6]. And, in 2019, as many as one-third of pigs in China died as a result of the ASF outbreak there leading to an increase of 47% in pork prices during that year [5,7].  But it is not only pork prices that are affected. The mucosa of pig intestines provides the primary resource for creating heparin, a critical anticoagulant used in humans, and China is responsible for as much as 80% of the supply worldwide [5,7]. Attempts to provide the world-wide supply of heparin using synthetic approaches have not yet succeeded [5]. Thus, the loss of pigs in China in 2008 and subsequent loss of supply of heparin led to a loss of 80 lives and hundreds of other adverse events [5]. Continued loss of pigs could, then, lead to dangerous reductions in the world-wide heparin supply [7].

There are currently 7,522 ASF outbreaks across the world with 3,976 of them occurring in Romania and 1,475 in Vietnam with 236 new outbreaks and a loss of over 10,000 animals in Europe alone during the period from October 2^nd to October 15^th, 2020 [1]. It is worthwhile considering the potential danger from this ongoing outbreak.

- Claire Hillier

References:

[1] African Swine Fever (ASF) Report No 55: October 2 to October 15, 2020; World Animal Health Information and Analysis Department (https://www.oie.int/fileadmin/Home/eng/Animal_Health_in_the_World/docs/pdf/Disease_cards/ASF/Report_55_Current_situation_of_ASF.pdf)

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[2] Dixon LK, Escribano JM, Martins C, Rock DL, Salas ML, Wilkinson PJ. 2005 Asfarviridae In Virus taxonomy. VIIIth Report of the ICTV (eds Fauquet CM, Mayo MA, Maniloff J, Desselberger U, Ball LA), pp. 135–143 London, UK: Elsevier/Academic Press.

[3] Montgomery RE. 1921 On a form of swine fever occurring in British East Africa. J. Comp. Pathol. 34, 59–191

[4] Sauter-Louis C, Forth JH, Probst C, Staubach C, Hlinak A, Rudovsky A, Holland D, Schlieben P, Göldner M, Schatz J, Bock S, Fischer M, Schulz K, Homeier-Bachmann T, Plagemann R, Klaaß U, Marquart R, Mettenleiter TC, Beer M, Conraths FJ, Blome S. Joining the club: First detection of African swine fever in wild boar in Germany. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2020 Oct 21. doi: 10.1111/tbed.13890. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33085828. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33085828/)

[5] Vilanova E, Tovar AMF, Mourao PAS. Imminent risk of a global shortage of heparin caused by the African Swine Fever afflicting the Chinese pig herd. J Thromb Haemost. 2019;17:254–6. doi: 10.1111/jth.14372. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jth.14372)

[6] Wu Q, Li Z, Zhang G, Niu J, Zeng X, Sun B, Ma J. Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus in southern China from 2007 to 2014. J Vet Sci 2017; 18: 317–26. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28057901/)

[7] Yun CH. Unforeseen enemy: African swine fever. Asian-Australas J Anim Sci 2020:33(1):1-3. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6946996/#b4-ajas-2020-0001ed)

[8] Asfarviridae. https://viralzone.expasy.org/12?outline=all_by_species