Don't Panic African Swine Fever Virus, Get To Know The Virus And How To Handle It!

Pig illustration (unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA - Don't panic about the African swine fever virus, get to know the virus and how to handle it! The first thing to know is the fact that African swine flu is not the same as swine flu.

African swine flu or African swine fever (ASF) is a virus that attacks pigs, both wild boar, and livestock pigs. This flu comes from the virus Family Asfarviridae.

Quoted from Antara, for cases in Asia, the African swine fever virus first infected China. After that, the plague spread to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Timor Leste.

Symptoms of African swine flu

As reported by The Guardian, ASF is a highly contagious swine virus disease. The most common symptom of this virus attack, which is acute in the form of pigs, is a high temperature and loss of appetite.

Other symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and difficulty breathing and standing. This disease has not found a way to treat it. This disease carries a risk of having a 100 percent mortality rate under certain circumstances, but it is not the same as swine flu.

African swine flu for humans

This flu is not dangerous for humans. ASF virus only attacks pigs/animals. People who eat pork infected with this virus also do not get health problems due to the ASF virus.

Even so, a sanitation doctor in Russia, Gennady Onishchenko, warned that the physiology of pigs is close to human physiology. Therefore, the mutation of the virus is considered dangerous for humans.

African swine flu can be transmitted through direct contact with infected animals. Wild boar was identified as one of the possible causes of the spread of the virus. Also, viruses can be spread through insects, such as fleas.

No vaccine has yet been found for this virus. The way that can be done to avoid virus attacks is biosecurity or biological security, which is to keep pigs away from the source of the virus.

Also, pig owners need to ensure that their livestock feed, environment, and equipment for raising pigs are not contaminated with the ASF virus.

It should be noted, although eating pork that is exposed to the ASF virus does not cause health problems (humans), pork has the opportunity to contain parasites, bacteria, or other viruses, such as the hog cholera virus or the hepatitis E virus. because of that, humans still have to be careful if they want to maintain a healthy body.

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