African swine fever (ASF)
African swine fever (ASF) is a very contagious and deadly disease that is endemic to sub-Sahara Africa and is caused by a virus known as ASFV (African Swine Fever Virus) which attacks pigs in general (domestic and wild pigs inclusive), causing a hemorrhagic fever in them which leads to their death in a matter of days. There is no known cure for this disease to date.
Although humans and other non-swine livestock are not prone to contracting this disease, however, humans, as well as these other non-swine animals, can help in transmitting the disease to domestic pigs. Just to point out, humans can carry this virus on their clothes, shoes, and equipment and spread the disease unknowingly to any pig which they come in contact with.
ASF has been spreading rapidly around the world in recent times and quite a few months back it was noticed to be sweeping across pig farms in Nigeria, predominantly the ones in the south-west region of the country, which included states such as Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, etc., leaving most of these farms completely devastated in its wake.
It was due to the inordinate prevalence of the outbreak of the much dreaded African swine fever disease that Suntwist Nigeria Limited had to take some drastic measures in protecting its farms and the interests of its investors by ensuring that the disease does not come anywhere near any of its farms. One of the measures taken was the willingness to stall the ongoing expansion project which was in top gear before the news of African swine fever emerged. An expansion project which we had already announced/communicated to our partners and the general public through different social media channels.
Although the stoppage of the expansion work on the farm wasn’t something that was desired at the time, we being people who are committed to achieving our goals and securing the interests of our investors had no other choice but to do the needful.
Obviously, one might be desirous to ask “how is there a relationship between continuing work on the farm and the pigs getting ASF”? The simple response to that question is the fact that since humans are capable of carrying the virus about on their clothes, shoes, or even equipment without them knowing it, it however made complete sense to stop all visitors from coming into our farm in the meantime because we cannot ascertain where the workers may have possibly entered, perhaps they may have gone to an infected farm before coming to ours, so, in order to eliminate all possible means of infecting our pigs, we had to do the needful.
Finally, we are quite happy to announce that the ASF epidemic has abated tremendously and none of our animals was affected in any way while the epidemic raged. We have once again commenced work on our farm. The once stalled construction of our pigpens is now almost complete and once completed, we would bring in new supplies of pigs and continue striving towards achieving the dream of becoming the biggest pig producers in Africa.
To see more pictures of the ongoing expansion of our pig farm, click here.