{"id":949,"date":"2014-09-28T23:11:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T03:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allphasepharma.com\/dir\/?p=949"},"modified":"2014-09-28T23:24:37","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T03:24:37","slug":"african-swine-fever-epidemics-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allphasepharma.com\/dir\/2014\/09\/28\/949\/african-swine-fever-epidemics-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"African Swine Fever Epidemics in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

You are excused if \u201cPig Progress\u201d or “The Pig Site” are\u00a0not journals on your regular reading list.\u00a0 So, you \"The<\/a>may not have heard about the massive recent culling of swine in Russia in response to outbreaks of ASF (African swine fever).\u00a0 ASF is a severe hemorrhagic disease associated with mortality up to 100%, and quite difficult to contain.\u00a0 It is caused by a pox-like dsDNA virus which only affects swine not humans.\u00a0 Transmission is via the soft-bodied Ornithodorus ticks which is associated with\u00a0relapsing fever (Borrelia \"Pig<\/a>recurrentis) in humans.<\/p>\n

Obviously, ASF virus is a pathogen of great importance in veterinary medicine.\u00a0 \u00a0Less known is its history as a biowarfare agent.\u00a0 In 1977 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the CIA supplied anti-Castro activists who deliberately introduced ASF into Cuba [1]<\/a>.\u00a0 This resulted in a massive ASF outbreak requiring the slaughter of some 500000 pigs, basically the entire pig population of the island [2]<\/a>.\u00a0 Details of this second \u201cBay of Pigs\u201d operation are still shrouded in mystery; chances are we will never get to the bottom of it but it caused the first outbreak of ASF in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

There is as yet no vaccine against the ASF virus but passive transfer of antibodies confers protection.\u00a0 Immunization with an attenuated strain seems promising.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

NB: \u00a0Just in case you were wondering: \u00a0There is no reported CIA connection to the current ASF outbreaks.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.maebrussell.com\/Health\/CIA%20Pig%20Virus.html<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> W Blum.\u00a0 Killing Hope. \u00a0http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=-IbQvd13uToC&pg=PA188&lpg=PA188&dq=ASF+virus+and+CIA+Cuba&source=bl&ots=cIr3GfBghD&sig=ojrEh7LIhbKLmz1WfFR7P9CP874&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gOwOVJ2XLI6myATuzoDoAw&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> LK Dixon.\u00a0 Dev Biol (Basel). 2013;135:147. doi: 10.1159\/000170936. Epub 2013 May 14.\u00a0\u00a0 –\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/23689892<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You are excused if \u201cPig Progress\u201d or “The Pig Site” are\u00a0not journals on your regular reading list.\u00a0 So, you may not have heard about the massive recent culling of swine in Russia in response to outbreaks of ASF (African swine fever).\u00a0 ASF is a severe hemorrhagic disease associated with mortality Continue reading African Swine Fever Epidemics in Russia<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[140,227,3],"tags":[558,559,563,562,565,560,561,564],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting_facts","category-recent_literature","category-the_news","tag-african-swine-fever","tag-asf","tag-asf-epidemic","tag-asf-vaccine","tag-biowarfare","tag-cia","tag-cuba","tag-russia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allphasepharma.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/ASF-slider.jpg?fit=640%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KWFr-fj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":534,"url":"https:\/\/allphasepharma.com\/dir\/2014\/07\/06\/534\/pleuromutilins-are-important-to-control-brachyspira-hyodysenteriae\/","url_meta":{"origin":949,"position":0},"title":"Pleuromutilins Are Important to Control Brachyspira hyodysenteriae","author":"Harald","date":"July 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Spirochetal colitis or swine dysentery is a disease of piglets with worldwide distribution.\u00a0 It can cause severe bloody diarrheal disease with a mortality of up to 50% in herds if untreated and thus can have great economic impact.\u00a0 The disease has been nearly eradicated in the US but periodically outbreaks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Did you know...?"","block_context":{"text":"Did you know...?","link":"https:\/\/allphasepharma.com\/dir\/category\/interesting_facts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pass_the_pigs_dice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allphasepharma.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Pass_the_pigs_dice-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2174,"url":"https:\/\/allphasepharma.com\/dir\/2015\/12\/07\/2174\/food-for-thought-sprinkled-with-small-amounts-of-antibiotic-residues\/","url_meta":{"origin":949,"position":1},"title":"Food for Thought, Sprinkled With Small Amounts of Antibiotic Residues","author":"Harald","date":"December 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"80% of antibiotics worldwide are used in veterinary medicine. With only a minor fraction metabolized to inactive compounds, there are plenty of antibiotics excreted by farm animals in unchanged active form. 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