FAO Deputy Regional Manager Ian Dacre presenting at the FAVA meeting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) raised the issue of African Swine Fever (ASF) that is currently spreading in China, in a plenary session at the Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations Congress (FAVA) in Nusa Dua, Bali on November 2, 2018. Ian Dacre, FAO Deputy Regional Manager in his presentation entitled: Risk of Transboundary Animal Disease in Asia said that the disease poses no direct threat to human health, but he explained that ASF could damage trade, cause huge economic losses, and threaten food security.

"We assume that Indonesia does not import pork or its products on any large scale. However, ASF is a robust virus that can survive in both very hot and very cold conditions, as well as many types of feed processing. So the virus could enter Indonesia with pork products brought in by tourists or seasonal workers," said Dacre.

FAO, through the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), has already been working with China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to set up an ASF contingency plan and improved diagnostic capacity to investigate ASF outbreaks, track the disease situation, conduct risk assessment and develop emergency preparedness. "Biosecurity is crucial to prevent ASF, as until now no vaccine is available to prevent the disease, and there is currently no effective treatment," he added.

Dacre hopes that Indonesia can develop its own contingency plan to prevent ASF from entering Indonesia since this country is known as a hotspot for emerging infectious diseases (EID) and zoonoses.

ASF Prevention through Outbreak Investigation Training.

Since 2013, FAO ECTAD together with the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health Services of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Indonesia, have conducted Outbreak Investigation training for animal health officers at the central and regional level.

This activity, conducted as a practical simulation, is intended to prevent or control the threat of disease outbreaks that can occur at any time. The simulation is built upon real life outbreak situations and problems, and decision-making mechanisms encountered in past infectious disease outbreaks from a variety of countries.

Up to now, 298 animal health officers have been trained in eight MoA Disease Investigation Centers, in Subang, Yogyakarta, Maros, Lampung, Bukittinggi, Banjarbaru, Denpasar and Medan. Outbreak investigation training focuses on increasing the capacity of central and regional veterinarians to effectively detect and report outbreaks.

"Training in investigating disease outbreaks is very important. I noticed that in the past few years when faced with outbreaks, the reports produced by veterinary officers were always different. There is no standard format; reports can vary depending on the characteristics of the case, location and so on. But, there is content and data that must always be present such as herd data, environmental conditions, the origin of animals and so on. This is important to record," said MoA Director of Animal Health, Fadjar Sumping Tajtur Rasa.

In addition to controlling diseases, Fadjar added, an outbreak investigation is also important for policy makers in determining the next steps to be followed in eliminating a disease. When a region is declared as a disease outbreak control area and livestock movement must be restricted, it can have implications that affect many things such as livestock insurance, and changes in emergency funding of non-natural disasters, such as disease outbreaks.

"Therefore, we as Government officers must be able to present data and information, as well as field evidence that can be incorporated into disease control policies," he concluded.

Outbreaks of African Swine Fever have occurred in Europe and the Americas as early as the 1950’s and through the 1980’s. However, in 2007, a new introduction of ASF occurred in the Republic of Georgia, which then spread to neighboring countries and deeply affected Eastern Europe.

In Asia, ASF was first detected at a pig farm in the Siberian region of the Russian Federation in March 2017.  In China, the virus was discovered in the country’s northeast at the beginning of August this year. Since then, five additional cases have been reported in other areas of China as much as one thousand kilometers apart.

China is a major pig producing country and accounts for approximately half the global population of swine, estimated at 400 million. To contain its spread within China, the authorities have culled as many 40,000 pigs so far.

Animal health officers sampling pigs in West Sulawesi