Advancing knowledge on the epidemiology of African swine fever virus in Kenya

In East Africa, pig production is linked to household livelihoods, as a source of protein and income while significantly contributing to the national economy.

However, pig production has never really picked up due to repeated outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) causing nearly 100% mortality of affected pigs. The spread of ASF out of Africa is a significant threat to global food security. The epidemiology of ASF virus in the Kenyan wild reservoirs is insufficiently understood.

Specifically, do warthogs and ticks carry more diverse ASFV genotypes than domestic pigs? What is the prevalence of the virus in warthog populations across ecological zones?

We focus on these questions as warthogs and their soft ticks are territorial and have a long lifespan, and may serve as sentinels for understanding the virus´s epidemiology, evolution, and ecology.

Our objectives are to determine seroprevalence of ASFV across distinct sub-populations of warthogs, determine virus genotypes in hard and soft ticks in Kenya, and leverage knowledge, technology and skills from Sweden to build capacity in quality research, dissemination, and publication.

The key activities include sampling multiple populations of warthogs for blood and sera, as well as ticks on their bodies, and soft ticks from warthog burrows. The expected outcomes are new data on the prevalence of ASFV in warthogs, genetic diversity, and evolution. Our networking will establish collaboration for advancing ASFV research.