African Swine Fever Is Spreading and Eliminating It Will Take Decades

Re:African Swine Fever Is Spreading and Eliminating It Will ... by inawarminister on Wednesday June 05, 2019 @10:32PM (#20111072)

I don't eat pork (religious reasons) but I'm curious on why this virus is so lethal? Climate change letting African germs survive in North Eurasia? Are there any equivalents for other domesticated animals? Yes, there's Bird Flu which is similar (and worse in that it can jump species to humans), but what about cattle? Sheeps? ... Cats and dogs?

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Re:African Swine Fever Is Spreading and Eliminating It Will ... by zyxzevn on Wednesday June 05, 2019 @11:27PM (#20111317)

From the text:" One of their difficulties is that the large, complex DNA virus that causes African swine fever has some 170 genes and 80 proteins, many of them specialized in evading different aspects of the pig immune system. "

So it is evolution, probably facilitated by certain conditions.

A huge amount of genes is also a weakness and might be targetted with specialized measures (like a proteine/gene-blocker). But the usual tricks wont work as well.

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Re:African Swine Fever Is Spreading and Eliminating It Will ... by rangibaby on Wednesday June 05, 2019 @11:16PM (#20111265)

My understanding is that bird flu is deadlier for humans (see: Spanish Flu) but swine flu is considered more of a risk of mutating into human flu

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