scholarly journals Development of a pandemic of African Swine Fever

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (02) ◽  
pp. 6186-2019
Author(s):  
ZYGMUNT PEJSAK ◽  
MARIAN TRUSZCZYŃSKI ◽  
KAZIMIERZ TARASIUKL

In the introduction of this paper the increasingly accepted nomenclature of basic expressions used in veterinary epidemiology is presented. This is in accordance with the 2018 Edition of Wiley-Blackwell Veterinary Epidemiology, by Michael Thrusfield. Pandemia and not Panzootia is used for large scale outbreaks of infectious diseases also in relation to animals characterizing significantly increased morbidity and mortatlity over a wide geographic area, including countries, continents or even the whole globe and causing significant economic, social and even political disruption. It is underlined that the pandemics of infectious diseases of animals will continue to increase because of the growing transboundary trade and transportation of animals and animal products and increasing international contacts of humans. In the control of pandemics of humans, particularly, for example of influenza of the years 1918-1919, and also in 1968, but also pandemics of other ethiology occurring in humans the World Health Organisation (WHO) took the leading position. In case of avian and swine influenza as well as in pandemics occurring in animals, the leading position in prevention, control and eradication belongs to World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The main part of this paper is devoted to the characterization of the pandemic of African Swine Fever (ASF) which started in 2007 in Georgia, transmitted from Africa. Countries, where ASF virus (ASFV) was confirmed by laboratory tests are mentioned in the text of this paper. They are located in Eurasia. Among them are countries, being members of the European Union (EU). The routs of spreading of the ASFV in wild boar and swine are given, the methods of ASF control in EU were presented. The main vector of the ASF spread in EU, is the wild boar and the humans. Future distribution of the pandemia spread of ASFV is difficult to predict. Veterinary services of many countries, practitioners and scientists are working intensively to understand epidemiology of ASF and to stop the spread of ASFV.

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (12) ◽  
pp. 6148-2018
Author(s):  
ZYGMUNT PEJSAK ◽  
MARIAN TRUSZCZYŃSKI ◽  
KAZIMIERZ TARASIUK

This paper contains main points of the scientific opinion prepared by EFSA in 2018 on the request of the European Commission on the ASF epidemic in wild boar in Eastern – Central Europe, which started in 2014 and is existing and increasing until the present time. The first point is providing an estimate of the wild boar density in the European Union (EU). The next item is presenting the opinion on the latest epidemiological data to identify thresholds in wild boar density that do not allow sustaining the disease in different settings. The third question and answer concerns wild boar and feral pigs depopulation methods or population reduction methods. The fourth chapter is reviewing fencing methods demonstrating to temporarily protect crops from damage, caused by wild boar or feral swine. Currently there is no evidence , that large –scale fences have been effective for the containment of wild boar or feral pigs. The answer to the fifth question on surveillance strategy contains information on sample size, frequency of sampling and identification of possible risk groups for early detection of ASFV in naïve wild boar population. Passive surveillance is according to the opinion of EFSA the most effective and efficient method of surveillance for early detection of ASF in wild boar. For early detection through passive surveillance , the aim is to test as many “found dead” animals as possible. Based on current knowledge and experiences for an intervention to be successful, there is a need to detect an ASF incursion while it is spatially contained. The sixth topic of the EFSA scientific opinion requests to review successful methodologies used in the past, as for example the mentioned passive surveillance. It is recommended that this should be done in discussion among specialists from the UE countries. Good collaborations with hunters is recommended.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Fernández-Carrión ◽  
Jose Ángel Barasona ◽  
Ángel Sánchez ◽  
Cristina Jurado ◽  
Estefanía Cadenas-Fernández ◽  
...  

Early detection of infectious diseases is the most cost-effective strategy in disease surveillance for reducing the risk of outbreaks. Latest deep learning and computer vision improvements are powerful tools that potentially open up a new field of research in epidemiology and disease control. These techniques were used here to develop an algorithm aimed to track and compute animal motion in real time. This algorithm was used in experimental trials in order to assess African swine fever (ASF) infection course in Eurasian wild boar. Overall, the outcomes showed negative correlation between motion reduction and fever caused by ASF infection. In addition, infected animals computed significant lower movements compared to uninfected animals. The obtained results suggest that a motion monitoring system based on artificial vision may be used in indoors to trigger suspicions of fever. It would help farmers and animal health services to detect early clinical signs compatible with infectious diseases. This technology shows a promising non-intrusive, economic and real time solution in the livestock industry with especial interest in ASF, considering the current concern in the world pig industry.


Author(s):  
Nicolai Denzin ◽  
Frithjof Helmstaedt ◽  
Carolina Probst ◽  
Franz J. Conraths

African swine fever (ASF) is a viral infection of pigs and represents a major threat to animal health and trade. Due to the high tenacity of the causative virus also in carcasses of wild boar, contacts of wild boar with infectious carcasses are regarded an important driver of the so-called habitat cycle. The latter is believed to play a major role in maintaining the present ASF situation in wild boar in Europe. Therefore, search campaigns and timely removal and disposal of carcasses are considered important disease control approaches. If timely disposal is not feasible due to logistic reasons, deterrence of wild boar could be a provisionary option. The performance of seven deterrents (physical and chemical) was tested in a forest near Greifswald, Germany. Carcasses as entities of attraction for wild boar were substituted by luring sites. It could be demonstrated that certain physical (LED-Blinkers, aluminum stripes) and chemical (Wildschwein-Stopp™, Hukinol™) deterrents are capable of reducing significantly the odds of wild boar contacts to one third. It is recommended to carry a choice of the aforementioned, reasonable and easy to apply deterrents, when carcass search campaigns are launched in case of an outbreak of ASF in wild boar.


Author(s):  
Maria José Saavedraa ◽  
João Carlos Sousa

Resumo A elevada mortalidade pelas doenças infecciosas, sobretudo epidémicas, mobilizou os cientistas na pesquisa de compostos naturais e produtos de síntese química dotados de propriedades antimicrobianas. Fazendo um pouco de história, referimos Paul Ehrlich, que utilizou o primeiro agente quimioterapêutico -Salvarsan, mais tarde Gerhard Domagk, que utilizou um pro-fármaco percursor de uma sulfamida. Em 1928, Alexander Fleming, descobriu de forma “casual” a penicilina, o primeiro antibiótico. Posteriormente em 1941 Howard Florey e Ernest Chain isolam e purificam a penicilina o que permitiu a sua utilização em larga escala -Era dos Antibióticos. A utilização dos antibióticos (AB) no tratamento das doenças infecciosas constituiu um dos maiores avanços da Medicina no séc. XX. No entanto a sua utilização em larga escala promoveu o aumento da incidência de estirpes multiresistentes aos AB, sobretudo em ambiente hospitalar. Adicionalmente verifica-se uma ocorrência cada vez mais elevada de estirpes resistentes na comunidade–humanos, animais e ambiente. O conhecimento dos mecanismos de ação e da ineficácia dos diferentes grupos farmacológicos de antibióticos é vital para o desenvolvimento de futuros microbianos, estando a ser estudados microrganismos do solo com a finalidade de encontrara novos fármacos. De realçar que a OMS preconiza que caminhamos rumo a uma "era pós-antibiótico”. Se não houver um plano de ação global para o "uso racional de antibióticos" a OMS prevê que em 2050 a resistência aos antibióticos, poderá matar mais de 10 milhões de pessoas.Palavras-chave: antibioterapia; resistência; antibióticos Abstract The current research on infectious diseases, especially with epidemic potential, has mobilized the scientific community to research on the natural substance and chemical probing products with antimicrobial properties. In a brief history of antibiotics, we refer to Paul Ehrlich, who used the first chemotherapeutic agent - Salvarsan, later Gerhard Domagk, who used a sulfamide precursor prodrug. In 1928 Alexander Fleming "casually" discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic. Later in 1941 Howard Florey and Ernest Chain isolate and purify penicillin that can be used on a large scale - Antibiotics Era. The use of antibiotics (AB) in the treatment of infectious diseases is one of the greatest advances of medicine in the 19th century. However, its large-scale use has increased the incidence of multidrug-resistant processes in AB, especially in a hospital setting. Besides, there is an increasing occurrence of resistant strains in different communities - humans, animals and in the environment. Understand the mechanisms of action and the ineffectiveness of the diverse pharmacological groups of antibiotics is crucial to provide further new antibiotic therapies in the near future. Recent studies have highlighted the soil-derived microorganisms as a novel approach to identify new drug substances. In this context, it is noteworthy that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers that we are moving towards a “post-antibiotic era”. If there is no global action plan for “rational use of antibiotics” WHO predicts that in 2050 the global impacts of antibiotic resistance on human heath will be catastrophic, killing more than 10 million people worldwide. Keywords: antibiotic therapy; resistence; antibiotics


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 863-869
Author(s):  
Stelian Baraitareanu ◽  
Dragos Cobzariu ◽  
Mihaela Popp ◽  
Marius Valer Campeanu ◽  
Doina Danes

INTRODUCTION: In 2007, African swine fever virus (ASFv) broken its well-known boundaries. This was the reference year for the first report of African swine fever (ASF) in Georgia. Subsequently, the virus reached pigs and boars in Armenia and Russia. From the Caucasus area, ASFv jumped in all directions, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in relation to the density of backyard pigs and their trade. In the next ten years there have been notifications and registrations of ASFv outbreaks in Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and the Czech Republic. Romania faced the first ASFv outbreak at the end of July 2017, in backyard pigs." in stead "density of backyard pigs and their trade. In the next ten years there have been notifications and registrations of ASFv outbreaks in Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and the Czech Republic. Romania faced the first ASFv outbreak at the end of July 2017, in backyard pigs.OBJECTIVES: The aim of study is to analyse the ways ASFv spread from and into different regions recorded by Eastern European states.METHODS: The immediate notifications on ASFv to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) were analysed from the Eastern-European states between 2007 and 2017. The analysis took into consideration the first occurrence of the disease under scrutiny in the country and the follow-up reports, in relation with the geospatial distribution of the outbreaks.RESULTS: The main route of ASFv introduction into local pig populations indicated by the Member States of the European Union was the trans-boundary circulation of boars. However, the spread of ASFv through both, wild and domestic pigs and also by the human alimentary customs/traditions in the affected areas shouldn’t be ignored. Three cycles of ASFv transmission have been identified and described by the epidemiologists: the domestic cycle, the sylvatic cycle and the tick-pig cycle.CONCLUSION: None of the ways to disseminate the ASFv should be excluded, and the origin of the first outbreaks remains unknown or inconclusive in Eastern EU states.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. e0009023
Author(s):  
Gabriel Alcoba ◽  
Carlos Ochoa ◽  
Sara Babo Martins ◽  
Rafael Ruiz de Castañeda ◽  
Isabelle Bolon ◽  
...  

Background Worldwide, it is estimated that snakes bite 4.5–5.4 million people annually, 2.7 million of which are envenomed, and 81,000–138,000 die. The World Health Organization reported these estimates and recognized the scarcity of large-scale, community-based, epidemiological data. In this context, we developed the “Snake-Byte” project that aims at (i) quantifying and mapping the impact of snakebite on human and animal health, and on livelihoods, (ii) developing predictive models for medical, ecological and economic indicators, and (iii) analyzing geographic accessibility to healthcare. This paper exclusively describes the methodology we developed to collect large-scale primary data on snakebite in humans and animals in two hyper-endemic countries, Cameroon and Nepal. Methodology/Principal findings We compared available methods on snakebite epidemiology and on multi-cluster survey development. Then, in line with those findings, we developed an original study methodology based on a multi-cluster random survey, enhanced by geospatial, One Health, and health economics components. Using a minimum hypothesized snakebite national incidence of 100/100,000/year and optimizing design effect, confidence level, and non-response margin, we calculated a sample of 61,000 people per country. This represented 11,700 households in Cameroon and 13,800 in Nepal. The random selection with probability proportional to size generated 250 clusters from all Cameroonian regions and all Nepalese Terai districts. Our household selection methodology combined spatial randomization and selection via high-resolution satellite images. After ethical approval in Switerland (CCER), Nepal (BPKIHS), and Cameroon (CNERSH), and informed written consent, our e-questionnaires included geolocated baseline demographic and socio-economic characteristics, snakebite clinical features and outcomes, healthcare expenditure, animal ownership, animal outcomes, snake identification, and service accessibility. Conclusions/Significance This novel transdisciplinary survey methodology was subsequently used to collect countrywide snakebite envenoming data in Nepal and Cameroon. District-level incidence data should help health authorities to channel antivenom and healthcare allocation. This methodology, or parts thereof, could be easily adapted to other countries and to other Neglected Tropical Diseases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Iglesias Martin ◽  
A. Pickford ◽  
F. Montes ◽  
C. Jurado ◽  
M.J. Muñoz ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Elena Vargas-Amado ◽  
Luís Pedro Carmo ◽  
John Berezowski ◽  
Claude Fischer ◽  
Maria João Santos ◽  
...  

African Swine Fever (ASF) has emerged as a disease of great concern to swine producers and government disease control agencies because of its severe consequences to animal health and the pig industry. Early detection of an ASF introduction is considered essential for reducing the harm caused by the disease. Risk-based surveillance approaches have been used as enhancements to early disease epidemic detection systems in livestock populations. Such approaches may consider the role wildlife plays in hosting and transmitting a disease. In this study, a novel method is presented to estimate and map the risk of introducing ASF into the domestic pig population through wild boar intermediate hosts. It makes use of data about hunted wild boar, rest areas along motorways connecting ASF affected countries to Switzerland, outdoor piggeries, and forest cover. These data were used to compute relative wild boar abundance as well as to estimate the risk of both disease introduction into the wild boar population and disease transmission to domestic pigs. The way relative wild boar abundance was calculated adds to the current state of the art by considering the effect of beech mast on hunting success and the probability of wild boar occurrence when distributing relative abundance values among individual grid cells. The risk of ASF introduction into the domestic pig population by wild boar was highest near the borders of France, Germany, and Italy. On the north side of the Alps, areas of high risk were located on the unshielded side of the main motorway crossing the Central Plateau, which acts as a barrier for wild boar. The results of this study can be used to focus surveillance efforts for early disease detection on high risk areas. The developed method may also inform policies to control other diseases that are transmitted by direct contact from wild boar to domestic pigs.


Author(s):  
I. S. Gladkov ◽  

The most important changes in the dynamics of foreign trade turnover of the European Union, as the leading collective subject of modern international trade, are considered for the first time during the first two decades of the XXI century. The shifts in the positions of the European Union in the system of global commodity exchange in the context of the changing numerical composition of the grouping are shown. The trends in the geographical structure of the EU’s export-import activities outside the bloc, including foreign trade relations with the Russian Federation, are analyzed. The main changes in the commodity composition of export and import of products outside of this integration association are revealed. The conclusions are drawn that, despite the large-scale challenges and crises that have manifested themselves over the twenty-year period, the European Union has managed to maintain a leading position in global trade thanks to its wellthought- out and flexible foreign trade policy. The methodology of comparative and statistical analysis is used on the basis of the latest statistical materials, a number of official and numerous calculated author’s data introduced into Russian scientific circulation for the first time.


Author(s):  
Praveen Jodalli ◽  
Amitha Basheer ◽  
Aradhana Nagarsekar ◽  
Ridhima Gaunkar ◽  
KM Ramya

Emerging zoonotic infectious diseases like swine influenza, avian influenza and Ebola have caused massive human suffering, social upheaval and economic damage across countries and continents. There is increasing evidence that humanity’s overexploitation of nature is one of the major factors responsible for the spread. Recently, mankind is traversing a hard-pandemic time due to COVID-19 outbreak which appears to be a brutal killer. When humans infringe wild adobes for food production, it generates opportunities for infectious pathogens to leap to livestock and humans. It is the time to begin brooding about more radical measures to handle the root of this crisis. A resilient food system that puts less stress on the environment would reduce the outbreak of Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) by reducing contact between humans and wild animals thereby restoring biodiversity. World Health Organisation (WHO) advises avoidance/judicious use of animal meat consumption during or after every outbreak. It is clearly evident that a balanced, healthy plant-based diet can help to control pandemics/epidemics not only by preventing the transmission but also by strengthening the immune system of individuals to combat the infection. This paper throws light on how the human diet is directly or indirectly linked to the emergence, spread and prognosis of various infectious diseases.


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