The impact of African swine fever virus on smallholder village pig production: An outbreak investigation in Lao PDR.
Matsumoto N., Siengsanan-Lamont J., Halasa T., Young JR., Ward MP., Douangngeun B., Theppangna W., Khounsy S., Toribio J-ALML., Bush RD., Blacksell SD.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes a deadly disease of pigs which spread through southeast Asia in 2019. We investigated one of the first outbreaks of ASFV in Lao People's Democratic Republic amongst smallholder villages of Thapangtong District, Savannakhet Province. In this study, two ASFV affected villages were compared to two unaffected villages. Evidence of ASFV-like clinical signs appeared in pig herds as early as May 2019, with median epidemic days on 1 and 18 June in the two villages, respectively. Using participatory epidemiology mapping techniques, we found statistically significant spatial clustering in both outbreaks (p