Why in News?

=> Recently, more than a thousand pigs have died in Saran district of Bihar, for which prima facie swine fever is believed to be responsible.

Key Points:

Swine fever is a contagious animal disease. There are mainly two types of it:

1. African Swine Fever (ASF)

=> It is a highly contagious and fatal animal disease, which infects domestic and wild boars and leads to an acute form of hemorrhagic fever.

=> ASF does not pose a threat to humans, as it only spreads from animal to animal.

2. Classical Swine Fever (CSF)

=> CSF is also known as Hog Cholera.

=> It is caused by a virus of the genus Pestivirus (family Flaviviridae), which is closely related to the viruses that cause bovine viral diarrhea in cattle and border disease in sheep.

=> ICAR-IVRI has developed a cell culture CSF vaccine (live attenuated) using lapinized vaccinia virus from a foreign strain.

By: ASRAF UDDIN AHMED