
African Swine Fever Is Spreading and Eliminating It Will Take Decades - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-eliminating-african-swine-fever/
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caf
This is pretty horrifying:

 _A United Nations report suggests some food-waste containing pork was dumped
from a ship visiting the port of Poti on the Georgian Black Sea and then eaten
by one of the local pigs that are allowed to scavenge on garbage. Within
weeks, 30,000 pigs had died and 80 percent of Georgia’s districts were thought
to be infected._

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ohiovr
I learned recently that pigs are fed all kinds of scraps even pork. Why aren’t
they vulnerable to diseases similar to mad cow disease?

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oliwarner
For the same reason BSE is rare, we stop higher risk spinal columns entering
the food chain at any point. They are removed and incinerated.

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SubiculumCode
Has there been any talk of risk that it can jump species?

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bayareanative
Meat agriculture at large scale always presents a pandemic risk... zillions of
animals crammed next to each other peeing and pooping next to human workers is
never A Good Thing™, because it's a worse Petri dish/bioreactor than a college
dorm or a hospital. Also, the antibiotics given to meat ag animals also risks
human antibiotic resistance if the same one is given to animals. These are the
main reasons I don't eat meat. In a sane world without corporate capture,
fossil fuel use and meat ag would end immediately. Vegetarianism is necessary
but often feels pointless like screaming into a hurricane while waiting for
Godot.

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ohiovr
When I first read about African Swine fever last year it was reported to have
a "100%" mortality rate. Its like the swine version of ebola.

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duxup
Ebola doesn't transmit very easily....this does.

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estro
What do you mean by “easily”? Do you mean it’s not airborne?

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ceejayoz
It's not airborne. From the article:

> The germ is hardy, capable of remaining active in water for a month, in meat
> and blood at room temperature for several months and for six years in cold,
> dark conditions. It’s resistant to temperature extremes, and can survive a
> day in vinegar-strength acids.

Ebola's only active for several _days_ at room temperature.
[https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html)

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Gibbon1
That's close to anthrax levels of nasty. Sometimes cattle in California and
Nevada come down with anthrax even though the disease hasn't been endemic for
100 years.

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inawarminister
I don't eat pork (religious reasons) but I'm curious on why this virus is so
lethal? Climate change letting African germs survive in North Eurasia? Are
there any equivalents for other domesticated animals? Yes, there's Bird Flu
which is similar (and worse in that it can jump species to humans), but what
about cattle? Sheeps? ... Cats and dogs?

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zyxzevn
From the text:" One of their difficulties is that the large, complex DNA virus
that causes African swine fever has some 170 genes and 80 proteins, many of
them specialized in evading different aspects of the pig immune system. "

So it is evolution, probably facilitated by certain conditions.

A huge amount of genes is also a weakness and might be targetted with
specialized measures (like a proteine/gene-blocker). But the usual tricks wont
work as well.

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SubiculumCode
This is exactly the kind of virus we need to understand how to build a
vaccine. Something like this in humans is scary. Here is to hoping that our
understanding of biology is reaching a point where we have more methods of
attacking these kind of things.

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burfog
Food animals don't get the option to travel around town at will. There should
be no possible way for the disease to spread.

The fact that the disease does spread means that farms are failing to provide
biohazard isolation.

We can see a similar problem with chickens. We actually give vaccines to
chickens. The vaccines would be pointless if the chickens were properly
isolated from contamination. Viruses do not spontaneously form from chickens
or from non-living matter.

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onion2k
Disease can be spread by more ways than simple food-animal-to-food-animal
contact. For example, bovine TB kills cows but doesn't kill badgers, so a
badger can spread it between herds. You can't stop that by isolating the cows.

There was a very controversial cull of badgers here in an attempt to stop it
but even that didn't work.

Disease management is hard.

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burfog
You stop that by isolating the cows from badgers and any other wildlife.
Workers and their clothing and tools get cleaned when entering and leaving the
facility.

The only thing hard about disease management is the competitive race to the
bottom. Skimping on disease management means you don't have to train the
workers, don't have to spend money on bleach, and don't have to repair holes
in the walls. Maybe you don't even bother with walls.

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onion2k
_You stop that by isolating the cows from badgers and any other wildlife._

Beyond raising cattle in a hermetically-sealed shed that is effectively
impossible,and definitely beyond the bounds of any sort of economic reasoning.

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geggam
Considering the similarity in Pigs and Humans shouldnt this be raising all
sorts of alarms ?

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darkpuma
Could this virus help eradicate wild populations of feral hogs?

Protecting the pork industry is all well and good, I love ham as much as
anybody else, but sacrificing a few years of pork production seems like it
could be a good deal if it means the eradication of environmentally
destructive feral hogs.

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soulofmischief
This is how you destroy an ecosystem. Bringing in one organism to fight or
replace another without thinking about the full consequences.

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hnzix
I mean, foreign feral pigs are a big problem in Oz. They aren't native to the
recent ecosystem. But that whole cane toad thing didn't work out so good.

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astazangasta
Here is the matching Simpsons clip:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpzj1IvEhTA](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpzj1IvEhTA)

