Classical swine fever: Controlling an exotic disease in South Africa

Classical swine fever is a highly contagious multisystemic disease of pigs and wild boars caused by a Pestivirus and results in a high mortality rate. The clinical signs are variable with a high fever, severe depression, a mucopurulent conjunctivitis, diarrhoea, convulsions and haemorrhages in the skin often seen in acute cases. Similar but milder clinical signs with eventual death are noted in the chronic and late-onset forms of the disease. This disease was recently introduced into South Africa by the feeding of pork swill from ships originating from SE Asia to pigs. This video not only discusses the epidemiology, clinical signs, pathology and diagnosis of classical swine fever but also focuses on the eradication campaign that the South African State Veterinary Services had to embark on to eradicate the disease which was not only by that time present in commercial pigs, but also in free-ranging pigs belonging to emerging farmers.

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