‘Nearly one million pigs dead’ as swine fever outbreak hits Nigeria

Pig farms in Nigeria have been hit by an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF).

The ASF is a severe viral disease affecting pigs and results in serious production and economic losses, and while there is no approved vaccine against ASF, it is not a risk to human health.

According to The Guardian UK, hundreds of thousands of pigs were culled by farmers in response to the explosion of the outbreak.

The farmers said the pig industry has lost up to N20 billion while over 20,000 jobs are at risk.

This is coming at a time that the country is battling the COVID-19 outbreak with 17,735 confirmed cases, which has spread across 35 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The outbreak was said to have started in Lagos and Ogun states in 2019, and has spread to other parts of the country.

Bello, a farmer in Lagos at the largest pig co-operative in West Africa, said about 500,000 pigs in the establishment have been culled.

“The government did nothing much, when you consider that most farmers are now plunged into serious debts because of the loans they took to keep their farms,” he said.

Ayo Omirin, a farmer who lost about 800 pigs, described the outbreak as the largest ever.

“We have never experienced anything of this scale in the past. This is the worst and largest outbreak ever,” Omirin said.

“A lot of pig farmers may not fully recover from their losses even in the next two years. Some farmers have left the industry already. At the moment, we have no clear picture of how the industry is going to bounce back.”

Adeleke Adebayo, son of a farmer, said his father died after they lost 100 pigs in two months as a result of the disease which hit the farm in April.

“When he returned from the farm the day we lost the last set of pigs, he stopped talking to anybody for three days. He was always absent-minded and withdrawn,” said Adedayo.

“He only spoke about the losses in the farm. He talked about all his labours for many years vanishing in a few days. He felt he was too old to start all over again. We all felt helpless. On the morning of 2 June, his birthday, he died.”