Epidemic Situation Investigation And Control Of Classical Swine Fever In Henan Province

Classical Swine Fever (CSF) is a highly contagious and hemorrhagic disease ofSuidae, which is caused by Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV), a member of thegenus Pestivirus of family Flaviviridae. Although the implementation of statutoryvaccination program is effective in control of the disease without major outbreaks, theCSF is still sporadic in China, causing a complicated situation with a huge economiclost every year.The efficient control or eradication of the CSF depends on the betterunderstanding of overall epidemiological status. With the attempt to discern theoverall view of characteristics and current of CSF in Henan, a investigation of 191CSF-suspected cases on 25 pig farms on epidemiology of CSF was carried out inprovince-wide. The results demonstrated there is a high rate of occurrence of CSF onmost pig farms in Henan Province in recent years, causing huge morbidity andmortality to the pig industry province-wide, especially to piglets. CSF has occurred toevery 2～3 years again and again. The epidemiology of CSF in the province wascharacterized by high morbidities in piglets below 20 days oid with a high mortalityas high as above 95%, and low morbidity in weaning pigs. The breeding pig could bethe carrier of the CSFV, which infected piglets through sows during pregnancy orlactation. Unvaccinated pigs often got sick and died by the herd on the privatelyowned farms. Mixed infection was characterized of the epidemiology of CSF inHenan Province in recent years. Large pig farms had a lower rate of morbidity thanmedium and small ones. Comprehensive measures were stochastically taken on 5CSFV infected farms and satisfactory effects have been achieved. Furthermore, theresult indicated that most of the examined piglets CSFV-infected, an average of77.4% CSFV positive by RT-PCR.The epidemiological status has systemically been demonstrated in our study,which illustrated epidemiological tendency in Henna province and has provided astrong scientific instruction to prevention and treatment of CSF.