Overview of the perceived risk of transboundary pig diseases in South Africa

Abstract

Pig production is one of the most important animal agricultural activities in South Africa, and plays a definite role in providing food security for certain population groups in the country. As with all animal production systems, it is subject to the risk of outbreak of transboundary diseases. In the present overview, evaluations of the perceived risk of selected transboundary animal diseases of pigs, as collated from the willing participants from the provincial veterinary services of South Africa, are presented. A scenario tree revealed that infected but undetected pigs were the greatest perceived threat. The provincial veterinary services, according to participants in the study, face certain difficulties, including the reporting of disease and the flow of disease information amongst farmers. Perceived strengths in surveillance and disease monitoring include the swiftness of sample despatch to the national testing laboratory, as well as the ease of flow of information between the provincial and national agricultural authorities. The four factors were identified that were perceived to most influence animal health-service delivery: transport, access, livestock policy and resources. African swine fever was perceived to be the most important pig disease in South Africa. Because the decentralisation of veterinary services in South Africa was identified as a potential weakness, it is recommended that national and provincial veterinary services need to work together and interdependently to achieve centrally controlled surveillance systems. Regionally-coordinated surveillance activities for certain transboundary diseases were identified as needing priority for the southern African region. It is proposed that an emergency preparedness document be made available and regularly revised according to the potential risks identified on a continuous basis for South Africa.

Molecular detection of Porcine circovirus type 2 in swine herds of Eastern Cape Province South Africa

“…The findings from this study suggest that the probable cost of neglecting proper PCV2 surveillance in South African pigs, as stated by Mokoele et al [ 33 ], could be grievous and devastating with any instance of a large-scale PCV2 infection outbreak in the country. It is noteworthy that PCV2 was detected in all the sampled farms in the province, indicating a significant level of occurrence of the ‘small but powerful’ viral pathogen in the swine herds.…”

Increasing diversity of swine parvoviruses and their epidemiology in African pigs

“…Pig farming systems in most African countries, as typified by South African system, include partially to fully free range system in rural communities, small and semi-commercial units and commercial scales. In the free ranging system, pigs normally move around in the community, feeding on scraps and wastes from household with zero biosecurity control, thereby increasing the risk of diseases transmission and spread (Mather and Marshall, 2011;Mokoele et al, 2015). Although pig production in African countries, regarding the frequency of reared pigs, is insignificant compared to other pig-producing countries of the world such as China, USA and Brazil; the importance of pig production cannot be overemphasized in the region considering its economic value in alleviating poverty and solving hunger challenge in developing countries of the world (FAO, 2012).…”

Global Status ofPorcine circovirusType 2 and Its Associated Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…This assertion is further confirmed by more recent research work of Mokoele et al [167] in which it was categorically stated that “though PCV2 may be an economically important disease in South Africa, to date, no specific surveillance has been conducted to validate the current status because the disease is thought to be ubiquitous in most countries.” However, seeming negligence to know the health status of swine herds of the country as regarding the ubiquitous viral pathogen could pose a serious problem for the industry in a nearest future due to a recent observation during a field trip which was part of our ongoing research work that is focused on determining the occurrence of some RNA and DNA viruses in swine herds of Eastern Cape Province South Africa; pigs with typical clinical manifestations of PMWS were seen (Figure 3), showing likelihood of existence of the viral pathogen in pig herds of the country.…”