Livestock Disease And African Food Security Essays - Animal Virology

Livestock Disease And African Food Security Livestock Disease and African Food Security A serious problem in Africa today is the emergence of rampant, deadly strains of disease that are affecting livestock and ravaging populations of pigs and cattle in many African nations, putting food security at risk in many populations of various nations. With already major food scarcity issues among many emerging African nations, disease will only further pressure an already dire situation for food security in Africa. Livestock play important roles in farming systems, which provide primarily food and income, which is necessary for food security. Nearly 12 percent of the world populations rely solely on livestock for its livelihood. (4) The latest outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the West African island nation of Cape Verde threatens the country's entire pig population, according to a 1996 FAO report. The disease has been endemically present in at least part of Cape Verde archipelago since 1985 - with peaks of morbidity/mortality twice a year, in spring and winter. (1) ASF is caused by a particularly resistant virus and is a potentially devastating disease. Very few pigs survive infection and those that do are contagious. ASF is endemically present in wild pigs in southern and eastern Africa in a cycle including infected domestic pigs, soft ticks and wild pigs. (1) In various ecosystems of Central and Western Africa there are huge outbreaks of this disease among domestic pigs and the disease occurs elsewhere in Africa. In all areas, infection is most common as a result of contact with infected, recovered or carrier pigs and ingestion of contaminated or infected garbage, urine and feces. Various strains have occurred in different regions due to the increasing use of non-indigenous pigs, which are particularly vulnerable to this. Animals are being shipped by road and air and are not being quarantined properly if at all. This threatens any country that relies on livestock for food security. ASF is an extremely resistant virus and can spread quickly among populations that are kept in poor sanitary conditions. Many experts agree that diseases such as ASF will continue to spread throughout African pig farms if proper sanitary conditions are not met and proper quarantine's aren't administered to try and curb the spread of this disease. Since there is no vaccine available, destroying infected animals is the primary method for eliminating the disease. In a different outbreak in Cote d'Ivore, almost 22,000 pigs were killed by ASF and another 100,000 were slaughtered in an attempt to eradicate the disease. (2) Yet another recent outbreak of ASF has surfaced in West African country of Benin on the Nigerian border. Authorities reported almost 3000 pigs dead and the FAO has sent a team called EMPRES (Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases) to investigate just as they did in both Cape Verde and Cote d'Ivore. (2) The team was put together in an effort to control plant and animals diseases that can stress a countries vital food security issues. A different di sease called Classic Swine fever, which isn't as deadly a strain is what the Benin officials say it is, but the EMPRES team fears this could be the deadly ASF version. An acute problem that comes without warning, ASF can completely destroy a countries pork industry because once the news gets out, no country will trade or buy any livestock with that country. This can have serious implications on meat eating cultures. In Cote d'Ivore, all pig sales were stopped in 1996 and continued again in 1997 with a total loss estimated to be around US $18million. The FAO report says that around 60 percent of Benin's populations relies solely on agriculture and stocks of 600 000 pigs play a vital role in income generation and national food security. (3) There are various methods used to farm pigs in both Benin and Cote d'Ivore. Commercial farms are the highest in output and are often hit hardest by the disease due to close quarters and easy transmission from one infected pig to another. Others rai se pigs in backyards where the animals are exposed to garbage and unhealthy conditions. Both of these methods of farming pigs are at the highest risk for