The demand for animal products has increased in the last decades, especially for poultry and pork. Pork production has increased drastically globally, and also in Uganda. Thirty-one percent of Uganda´s population lives in poverty. Pig production is believed to play a crucial role in poverty alleviation, because of the ability to convert low quality feed into high quality protein together with high reproductive potential.
African swine fever (ASF) is a lethal disease of domestic pigs often characterized by haemorrhagic fever and with mortality rates up to 100%. The disease is endemic in most sub-Saharan countries and since 2007 in the Russian Federation and Caucasus area. ASF is associated with severe sanitary and socio-economic consequences, in countries where it is endemic as well as in areas where it has recently been introduced. The epidemiology, involving a domestic and a sylvatic cycle, is complex. This, together with the absence of vaccine and the marked virus resistance in contaminated animal products, make ASF one of the most feared and therefore important diseases in swine. ASF poses a serious constraint on pig production in Africa, where control is made difficult by several factors, including lack of basic biosecurity measures, traditional free-ranging husbandry system and movements of pigs.
The aim of this study was to collect information from the past year´s outbreaks of ASF in Gulu district to better understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of the disease and to clarify modes of transmission.
Sixteen villages with history of confirmed outbreaks of ASF were visited and 135 interviews were performed. The average mortality during these outbreaks was estimated at 84.5%. Thirteen blood samples were collected from clinically affected pigs. Out of these, five were PCR-positive. Out of the six blood samples from pigs that survived outbreaks, three were ELISA-positive.
The main transmission routes were trade of live pigs and pig products, especially at onset of an outbreak (introduction into a village). When the virus had been introduced into a village, it was probably spread through swill/waste and direct contact between domestic pigs, both of which are facilitated through the traditional free range pig husbandry system and lack of biosecurity. The involvement of wild reservoirs and subclinical carriers was not investigated but is assumed to be less important
