Interventions and actions taken by stakeholders during African swine fever outbreaks in Mukongoro Sub-county Kumi District

Abstract

In Uganda, pig farming is one of the fastest growing livestock production activities particularly in rural and peri-urban areas and has become very attractive as means of providing food, income and employment. African swine fever, a highly contagious and fatal hemorrhagic disease of domestic pigs with a mortality rate of up to 100%, has severely affected piggery industry in Uganda. A retrospective study was carried out in Mukongoro sub-County to obtain information regarding the actions and interventions taken by smallholder pig farmers, veterinarians and pig traders following the recent African swine fever outbreaks in the area. It was found out that ASF outbreaks occurred annually in Mukongoro sub-County in the past five years. Generally, the smallholder pig keeping households kept their pigs in traditional husbandry systems. The application of the conventional biosecurity measures to curb the spread of the disease was not done by the smallholder pig keeping households. The pork traders purchased ASF infected pigs slaughtered and sold the pork to the community during the recent ASF outbreaks in the study area. In conclusion, since biosecurity measures like stamping out of ASF infected pigs is not feasible in poor countries like Uganda as it results to loss of quality protein, it is therefore essential to develop ASF outbreak response policies that fit the poor countries. Options include containing the virus within quarantined areas, slaughtering and processing products from pigs potentially exposed to ASFV at infected premises under conditions of adequate biosecurity; and implementing measures to inactivate any potential virus, for example, by heat treatment of pork products. This protocol, if implemented reliably, would reduce risk of spread while still getting some value from the meat in poor countries like Uganda where compensation is not possible.