The Chairman of AFAN, Dr Femi Oke has revealed that swine fever virus has killed N7bn worth of pigs in a Lagos farm.
He said that the farm became infested with the swine fever even before the COVID-19 lockdown began.
African swine fever virus is a large, double-stranded DNA virus in the Asfarviridae family. The virus causes a hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in domestic pigs.
Some isolates can cause death of animals as quickly as a week after infection.
This virus is the biggest threat to commercial pig production the industry had ever seen, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health.
Oke said that many of the affected farmers were unable to visit the farm to attend to the animals owing to the restriction of movement by both the Federal and State governments. This contributed greatly to the death of the animals.
He said that while some of the affected farmers are now deceased, some others are bed-ridden due to the shock of the huge loss in their business and source of livelihood.
He said that very few of the farmers are currently struggling to revive the farm which is now in ruins.
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