Swine Fever News and Research

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Classical swine fever (CSF), also known as hog cholera, is a highly contagious viral disease of swine. CSF was eradicated from the United States in 1978 after a 16-year effort by the industry and State and Federal governments. Today, only 16 other countries are free of CSF. In the spring and summer of 1997, outbreaks of CSF were confirmed in Haiti and the Dominican Republic; both countries had eradicated the disease in the early 1980's. Also in 1997, several European countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium, experienced outbreaks and suffered heavy losses. These outbreaks have animal health officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) con- cerned that CSF could spread to U.S. swine herds. While CSF does not cause foodborne illness in peo- ple, economic losses to pork producers would be severe if the disease were to become established again in this country.

Weak governance hinders One Health outbreak response in Africa

Across Africa, One Health is endorsed at the top but often breaks down where outbreaks start, writes Albert Ansah.

5 Feb 2026

Philippines unveils new technologies to detect and manage African Swine Fever

Three new technologies to detect and manage African Swine Fever have been unveiled in the Philippines amid ongoing concerns about a vaccine imported from Vietnam.

15 Sep 2025

African swine fever vaccine shows variable protection across virus strains

An international team of scientists has found that a promising African swine fever (ASF) vaccine can protect pigs against some strains of the virus but offers little or no protection against others. The findings point to the need for region-specific vaccines to tackle one of the world's most devastating animal diseases.

25 Aug 2025

New diagnostic tool offers rapid, low-cost blood test for multiple diseases

Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a breakthrough diagnostic tool that could transform how quickly and reliably we detect illnesses like COVID-19, Ebola, AIDS or Lyme disease. The test uses just a single drop of blood, costs a couple of dollars and delivers results in only 15 minutes.

13 Aug 2025

Study traces longstanding presence of African swine fever in Europe

A new study in Genome Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that the African Swine Fever virus, currently circulating in Europe, is not the result of a recent introduction.

4 Jun 2025

Researchers develop a reverse genetics system for African swine fever virus

Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have developed a reverse genetics system for African swine fever virus (ASFV).

26 Mar 2025

New grant aims to develop rapid biosensors for detecting African swine fever

Foreign animal diseases are a global threat to swine production with the potential for detrimental economic implications.

17 Oct 2024

Philippines faces scrutiny over rollout of unproven African swine fever vaccine

The Philippines is under global scrutiny as it proceeds with the controlled rollout of an unproven African swine fever (ASF) vaccine from Vietnam amid doubts from experts about its safety and efficacy.

30 Aug 2024

Exploring the advancements of Traditional Chinese Medicine to combat African Swine Fever

African Swine Fever (ASF) poses a grave threat to the swine industry, with the virus causing severe economic and agricultural disruptions since its emergence in China in 2018.

17 Jun 2024

SOUND-control: A COST Action advancing cattle disease control in Europe

Europe has faced its fair share of animal health crises, like the outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease, Avian influenza in the Netherlands (2003), and African swine fever. But what about the diseases present in many countries that don't grab the headlines?

12 Jul 2023

Experts identify a novel fucosylated heparan sulfate from the midgut gland of the Japanese scallop

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), including chondroitin sulfate (CS), heparan sulfate (HS), heparin, and hyaluronan are linear and acidic polysaccharides found in the extracellular matrix of all animal tissues. GAGs are widely used as functional ingredients in health products, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, and are prepared from biological samples such as shark cartilage and porcine intestinal mucosa. Consequently, the demand for new sources of GAGs is ever-present. For example, the supply source of the anticoagulant heparin - generally prepared from porcine intestinal mucosa in China - was threatened by African swine fever in 2018.

15 Jun 2023

Could mRNA vaccines triumph over other viral infections in humans and domestic animals?

Researchers review potential areas for mRNA vaccine development against pathogenic viruses other than SARS-CoV-2.

28 Nov 2022

On-site ultrasensitive monkeypox viral testing using CRISPR/Cas12a

In a new study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers in China developed an MPXV assay combining clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) and recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) for the first time.

18 Oct 2022

Novel P22-mAb based bELISA assay can help detect antibodies against African swine fever virus

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly infectious and fatal disease of pigs. Due to the complexity of the ASF virus (ASFV) and various clinical forms of the disease, a wide range of highly effective and robust sero-diagnostic assays are required.

2 Sep 2022

Würzburg scientists are working on the development of new drugs to combat monkeypox

Poxviruses pose a threat to humanity that should be taken seriously, as the current outbreak of monkeypox shows.

1 Aug 2022

Development of a rapid, inexpensive and highly accurate diagnostic method to fight African Swine Fever

While the attention of public health authorities has been rivetted on the current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, many other viruses have been stealthily circling the globe, causing serious disease and death in humans and other animals.

25 May 2022

UK's fight against zoonotic diseases receives a £200 million boost

The UK's fight against zoonotic diseases, including avian flu and bovine tuberculosis received a major boost today (16 February) with the allocation of £200 million for a programme of investment into world leading research facilities.

15 Feb 2022

Recognizing viral genomes in quick, ‘CRISP’ ways

Researchers from China recently reviewed the latest advancements, applications, and prospects of virus detection using CRISPR-Cas systems.

27 Aug 2021

African swine fever does not pose health risks to humans

The ASF pathogen is a virus which infects domestic pigs and wild boar and which leads to a severe, often lethal, disease in these animals. It is transferred via direct contact or with excretions from infected animals, or through ticks.

15 Sep 2020

Could labs that test livestock ease covid testing backlog for people? Well … maybe.

In a heated exchange late last month on CNN's State of the Union, host Jake Tapper pressed Adm. Brett Giroir, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary who oversees COVID testing efforts for the Trump administration, on why the government isn't requiring commercial labs to increase testing capacity in order to speed turnaround time.

5 Aug 2020