Epidemiology of African Swine Fever in Piggeries in the Center, South and South-West of Cameroon

Abstract

African Swine Fever (ASF) is enzootic in Cameroon. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the center, south and south-west regions of Cameroon in order to determine: the knowledge, skills and practices at risk of pig breeders; the prevalence of the disease in piggeries; the genome of the circulating virus. A total of 684 blood samples were collected in 209 farms for RT-PCR and ELISA analyses at the National Veterinary Laboratory (LANAVET) annex in Yaoundé. Prevalences of 15.2% (95CI: 12.5–17.9%) by ELISA, 23.8% (95CI: 20.6–27.0%) by RT-PCR, and 15.2% (95CI: 12.5–17.9%) by ELISA-PCR, were recorded. Of the farmers surveyed, 90% knew about the ASF and 55.3% have already experienced it. The 47.4% of them would not be able to recognize ASF if it occurred and, according to them, the risk of the disease introduction in farms would be 32% linked to the animal health personnel who work on farms. Molecular characterization revealed that only ASF genotype-I variable 19T-RSs is circulating. ASF is still hovering at a risky rate over the pig sector of Cameroon. The control of ASF needs an epidemiological surveillance, a better involvement of all stakeholders, sensitization of breeders and an effective State support for producers.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Swine Farmers related to Livestock Biosecurity: A Case Study of African Swine Fever in Vietnam

“…One way forward would be more increased focus on capacity building, a growing trend in Southeast Asia (Luskin et al, 2021;Aiyar and Pingali, 2020). Rising production costs are significant financial hurdles for smallholder swine farmers, and therefore more financial support is one key way of helping overcome the financial challenges restricting some farmers' capacity to adopt and implement ASF biosecurity measures (Ngu Ngwa et al, 2020).…”

“…Additionally, some infected pigs from five farms in Cam My district did not show any evident clinical symptoms of ASF, meaning that farmers were unaware of such infections and consequently were unable to identify many symptoms when asked. Such knowledge levels among Vietnamese farmers are comparable with those of Cameroonian farmers; in one study, 90% of interviewed farmers knew about ASF but only 36.3% were able to identify the major symptoms, with several farmers confusing symptoms of ASF with those of other swine diseases (Ngu Ngwa et al, 2020). Cases of incompete understanding of ASF among swine farmers were also found in Senegal (Missohou et al, 2001), the Central African Republic (Abdallah, 1997), and Madagascar (Grenier, 2005).…”

Comparison of the sensitivity, specificity, correlation and inter‐assay agreement of eight diagnostic in vitro assays for the detection of African swine fever virus

“…(2019) was chosen as the reference comparator for correlation studies and intra‐assay agreement calculations. It was selected based on its use by several members of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VETLAB) Network (Dharmayanti et al., 2021; Ngu Ngwa et al., 2020; Wade et al., 2019). VETLAB is a network of national veterinary laboratories in Africa and Asia, supported by the Joint FAO/IAEA Center.…”

“…The thermal cycling conditions for the three master mixes consisted of an initial denaturation at 95 • C for 5 min, 40 cycles of 95 • C for 15 s and 58 • C for 30 s. In the present study, theKing et al's (2003) protocol using iQ Supermix as described inWade et al (2019) was chosen as the reference comparator for correlation studies and intra-assay agreement calculations. It was selected based on its use by several members of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VETLAB) Network(Dharmayanti et al, 2021;Ngu Ngwa et al, 2020;Wade et al, 2019). VETLAB is a net-work of national veterinary laboratories in Africa and Asia, supported by the Joint FAO/IAEA Center.…”