What is African swine fever?
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious hemorrhagic viral disease of domestic and wild pigs, which is responsible for serious economic and production losses. This transboundary animal disease (TAD) can be spread by live or dead pigs, domestic or wild pigs, or by pig products. Transmission may also occur via contaminated feed and fomites (non-living objects), such as shoes, clothes, vehicles, cutlery, equipment, etc., due to the high environmental resistance of the ASF virus.
Source: OMSA
Background
Due to the negative health, ecological, economic, and commercial impact caused by African Swine Fever worldwide, the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs), created by OMSA and FAO, promotes and strengthens national, regional and global partnerships aimed at reinforcing control measurements and minimizing the effects of the complex and difficult disease of the African Swine Fever. Under this umbrella, the inter-agency training group for the prevention and response to African Swine Fever is formed, made up of all international, regional, and subregional agencies, in charge of providing technical cooperation in the countries of the Americas and the Caribbean.
This group, under the coordination of IICA, joins efforts to constantly develop webinars or web seminars with different technical approaches that provide progressive preparation in the development of capacities to prevent and contain ASF in the hemisphere. Based on the initiatives above and to strengthen the knowledge about PPA, as well as the generation of behavioral changes at different levels (public-private-consumer), the need to develop a platform with technical information from the inter-agency group, where the series of webinars on PPA are available to the public, among others.
Objective of the platform:
This platform was created as a means of compiling official information on African swine fever in one place. The content was technically selected by international agencies in the Alliance working to prevent the spread of the disease throughout the Hemisphere and is available to all countries in the Americas and the Caribbean.
