Introduction
African Swine Fever (ASF) is a devastating and economically important
infectious disease of domestic and wild pigs with high mortality rate.
Caused by the ASF virus (ASFV), a large double-stranded DNA virus of the
Asfarviridae family, ASF is one of the diseases notifiable to the World
Organization for Animal Health (Blome et al., 2020). First described in
East Africa in the early 1900s, ASFV subsequently spread in the European
countries and in the Caribbeans but was largely controlled in the
domestic pigs by the end of 20th century (Gaudreault
et al., 2020). The 21st century outbreaks of ASF in
Georgia (2007), Russian Federation (2007), China (2018), India (2020),
and other European and Asian countries indicate its potential emergence
as a major health threat to the global pig population (Gaudreault et
al., 2020; Patil et al., 2020).
Nepal is an agricultural country where livestock sector alone
contributes about 11.5% of the total gross domestic product (GDP)
(Poudel et al., 2020). There are about 7.3 million cattle, 5.2 million
buffalos, 0.8 million sheep, 11 million goats, and 1.4 million pigs in
Nepal (Poudel et al., 2020). Pig farming and pork eating are objected by
religious and cultural beliefs in Nepal. However, with declining
cultural bigotry, especially in the younger generation, and support and
promotion of pig rearing by the Government of Nepal for poverty
alleviation, pig farming is increasing in recent years (S. Dhakal et
al., 2012). The total population of pig in Nepal is estimated to be
around 1.4 million which is 42.30% increase from 2008/9 to 2018/19
(Figure 1) (MoALD, 2020; Poudel et al., 2020). During the same period,
pork production in Nepal was increased by 68.19% with the current pork
production estimation being 28,579 MT (Figure 1) (MoALD, 2020; Poudel et
al., 2020). Pig meat comprises 8% of total meat production in Nepal
while pork consumption is less than 1 Kg per capita out of the total
national per capita meat consumption of around 11 Kg (MoALD, 2017).
Pig farming is carried out in all 77 districts of Nepal where Jhapa, a
district that lies in the lowland plains (Terai) and houses about 81,000
pigs, ranks first and Mustang district, which falls in the
trans-Himalayan climatic zone and has less than 100 pigs, ranks last in
pig population (Figure 2) (MoALD, 2017). Pig population is higher in
Province 1 in the eastern part of Nepal and in Province 5 where the pig
farming ethnic communities predominate (Figure 2) (Santosh Dhakal et
al., 2014).
While pig farming is growing in Nepal, diseases like ASF can jeopardize
this industry which already suffers from challenges in pig breeding,
marketing, feed availability, and management of other pig diseases. The
recent outbreaks of ASF in Assam, India (Patil et al., 2020), which is
around 670 Km away from Nepal, and in China (Ma et al., 2020), the
world’s largest pig producer and Nepal’s another neighboring country,
are alarming signs and big threat
to Nepalese pig industry. In this scenario, this paper reviews the
epidemiology of ASF in Asian countries with special emphasis on the
challenges and future perspectives of ASF in Nepal.