Poster prepared for the ILRI Institute Planning Meeting, Addis Ababa, 17-19 September 2019

1. Take-home messages on ASF
• Since the first report of ASF in Vietnam in February 2019,
the disease has spread to 62 out of 63 provinces/cities and
caused approximately 3.8 million pig losses.
• ASF notifications followed for Cambodia (April 2019), Laos
(June 2019) and Myanmar (Aug 2019), Philippines
(September 2019).
• ASF is expected to be endemic in the region as short-term
eradication is unrealistic.
• ASF is different from classical swine fever, or ‘hog cholera’
which is caused by another virus.
• ASF does not harm humans.
• There is no treatment or effective vaccine currently
available for ASF but research to find a vaccine has been
intensified.
• Early detection and fast outbreak control for ASF is crucial
to avoiding further spread.
• An effective prevention from ASF is consequent on-farm
biosecurity measures. This will also help to reduce other
infectious pig disease.
ILRI engagement and research on ASF
Socio-economic impact of African Swine Fever
(ASF) in Vietnam (June–July 2019)
Following the call of the Vietnamese government for
international support to tackle ASF, FAO contracted
ILRI to conduct an impact assessment of ASF
outbreak in Vietnam. The project looked at the
socio-economic impacts of the disease and
proposed medium- and long-term action plans to
safeguard the livelihoods of those involved in the
pig sector, particularly vulnerable groups. The final
report was submitted to FAO for review.
Contact
k.rich@cgiar.org
ILRI Vietnam
This document is licensed for use under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International Licence. Date Year.
Problems/issues
African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious
disease which is harmless to human but fatal to pigs.
The first ASF outbreak in Vietnam was officially
announced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development on 19 February 2019. Since then, the
government has put quite a lot of efforts to contain
the spread of the diseases, however, it is seemingly
uncontrollable, especially under the context of no
vaccine and treatment.
Some risk factors to Vietnam:
• Long borders over which thousands of people
and vehicles cross daily. Vietnam detected ASF
virus in illegal pork products
• International travels to Vietnam with millions of
people who could carry meats and food
products etc.
• Low biosecurity at small and medium
households; only one reported outbreak in
commercial farms
• None-zoonotic disease but farmers could panic
selling, especially during the Tet and festival
events
OIE posters on ASF were translated into Khmer, Lao and Vietnamese
language for use at the grassroots level.
ILRI research on African swine fever
in Southeast Asia
Impact assessment of African swine fever outbreak in Vietnam
(2019)
Funded by ACIAR, this project is to deepen the FAO’s project by
using the Vietnam Pig Model (VPM) developed by ILRI and
national partners to quantify the national and regional impacts of
the current ASF outbreak in Vietnam under different scenarios.
The project will be conducted by a consortium of ILRI, Institute for
Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development
(IPSARD), Livestock Production Department (LPD) and
Department of Animal Health (DAH) since September 2019.
Gene expression profiling analysis of ASF virus after
experiment infection in pigs in Vietnam (2019–2021)
Funded by RDA in South Korea, this project is to better
understand the gene expression of ASF virus in Vietnam.
Risk communication with Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia
Translation of OIE posters on ASF into local language of OIE
materials for key actors of pig value chains.
Engagement in conferences to talk about ASF
• Regional Symposium on Research into Smallholder Pig
Production, Health and Pork Safety, Mar 2019 organized by
ILRI and University of Queensland, Australia
• ASF international conference in VNUA, April 2019
• Many conferences and meetings on ASF organized by
MARD and DLP.
ILRI RDA-NIAS
ChallengeexperimentofASFV Host genome analysis
Challenge
experiment
Main objectives
Host tissues and transcriptomic data collection from in vivo ASF virus infection for disease resistance research in pigs
Identification of gene expression profiling of ASF virus after experiment infection in pigs
Comparison of the genome sequencing data between commercial and African indigenous pigs
Transcriptome analysisClinicaldatageneration
Gene
expression in
host genome
DB constructionSamplingofhosttissues