Study: US needs stricter controls to contain ASF

The U.S. will need stricter control strategies if it wants to contain a hypothetical outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in a timely manner, according to new research led by North Carolina State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A model built for the study found that current measures successfully contained the virus in just 65% of simulated scenarios. The U.S. would need to increase quarantine periods from 30 days to 72 days to have a 99% chance of containing the virus within a year, according to Gustavo Machado, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University.