see also:

• viruses

• African Swine Fever virus is a highly virulent DNA virus that causes a severe hemorrhagic disease of the same name affecting both domestic pigs and wild boars with high mortality rates
• it does NOT infect humans - meat or other products from pigs do NOT pose any food safety risk for humans
• this is NOT swine flu

• initially limited to the sub-Saharan African region, the virus (specifically genotype II) spread globally and is now a major concern in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and, more recently, the Caribbean
  • from 2022-2025, there were over one million pigs lost in Europe due to genotype II which shares a single common ancestor with those circulating in Africa
    • the virus has been present in Europe since 2007. Its current dramatic spread appears to be driven largely by people within Europe traveling longer distances.