African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a double-stranded DNA virus in the Asfarviridae family. It causes acute haemorrhagic fever in domestic and wild pigs.
'African swine fever' is a contagious and fatal animal disease. It does not affect humans but they can be carriers of it. There is no treatment for this, due to which the mortality rate due to this is 100%.
It was first seen in Africa in the 1920s, hence it is called 'African swine fever'.
New cases of the disease have been reported in Kannur, a week after nearly 500 pigs were killed to prevent the spread of African swine fever in Kerala's Wayanad district.