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Feedback on controversial articles
WHILE we tend to re- main neutral and unbi- ased as to the content of this publication, we have received recent feedback regarding a couple of controver- sial articles, so we thought we’d give a little insight into why they appear.
– offering information relevant to the industry from all perspectives.
Whether that be prac- tically, such as the legality of drone fly overs, or virtually, such as the industry’s reputa- tion with allegations of animal mistreatment.
As a pork industry newspaper, having a helicopter view of the happenings in and around the sector is at our editorial forefront
Yes, the details can be confronting, question- able, naïve, misleading or simply the personal opinion of the author.
If you have any que- ries regarding this pub- lication, email ben@ collins.media or call us on (07) 3286 1833.
Media releases are frequently sent in and, if the content is rel- evant to the industry, they will appear.
Opening the door to conversation and pro- gress is fundamental to the content of the news- paper.
However, this also of- fers the opportunity to assess what impact it has on the industry.
Figure 4: Endemic transmission cycle of African swine fever. The figure shows the endemic transmission cycle of ASF in a large continuous wild boar population and main natural mechamisms and factors facilitating sus- tained year-round circulation and progressive geographical spread. Note that Roman numerals denote months of the year.
African swine fever in wild boar
* from P10 Seropositive
their lymph nodes, hence they must be considered as potentially infective and thus whenever hunted and testing as seropositive for ASFV, should be safely de- stroyed in the same way as virus-positive animals. Dead
for the presence of ASFV or other pathogens.
In a wild boar population, the virus is shed by:
Animals that have sur- vived the disease and, when tested, appear to be antibody-positive only.
Though in any wild boar population there is always a proportion of animals that die naturally without any infection from ASFV, as an ASF epidemic unfolds the number of carcasses in- creases substantially, thus signalling the incursion of the virus or more often an ongoing epidemic.
• Incubating animals, during a very short period before the appearance of clinical signs – as this phase is rather short, it is of minor importance in the whole chain of ASF infec- tion
They are resistant to re- infection, at least from the same strain of the virus, against which antibodies were developed.
The majority of wild boar infected with ASFV die – ASF has a case fatality of 90-95 percent – and re- main in the environment for some time, providing a significant source of infec- tion for other wild boar.
• Sick animals, towards the end of the clinical phase, shortly before the animal dies, virus shed- ding reaches its peak
In infected areas, the pro- portion of seropositive wild boar in the hunting bag ranges from 0.5 to 2 per- cent, however the number of seropositive animals is correlated with the dura- tion of ASFV persistence in the area.
The simplest and most frequent way of identifying the potential presence of ASF in an area is through hunters or other people visiting wild boar habitats finding carcasses, which can then be tested.
In Europe, the detec- tion of ASF-infected car- casses increases from winter through spring and summer, peaking in July and August.
• Convalescent animals, which have survived the acute subacute stage of infection, can spread the virus for some time – the virus is attached mainly to the erythrocytes 95 per- cent and to a lesser extent white blood cells 1 percent – during this period, the virus is shed only through blood, for example from wounds resulting from fights among wild boar.
Thus, increased sero- prevalence reveals an en- demic stability rather than an attenuation of the virus virulence.
These observations re- flect certain patterns of the disease transmission cycle and population dynamics, as well as the cumulative effect of climatic and sea- sonal factors on carcass de- composition and the prob- ability of their detection by people.
While seropositive ani- mals no longer shed the virus, the viable virus could still be detected in
Any dead wild boar should be removed from the forest and safely de- stroyed, as well as tested
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Australian Pork Newspaper, October 2022 – Page 11
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