African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks were first confirmed in Nigeria in November 1997. In spite of the proximity of the infection in the neighbouring countries, a great delay has been noticed between the probable primary outbreak and the recognition of the disease, although early and accurate recognition of ASF is extremely important for the containment and eradication of the disease. In addition, from the first outbreaks, it appeared that the Nigerian reporting system was not efficient enough and could not serve as an early warning system. That suggests that the links between States and Federal services are loose, creating therefore an information gap.

The EMPRES system's approach has not been applied and ASF is presently spreading in all directions. The spread of this devastating transboundary disease could have been avoided if the FAO recommended actions had been undertaken in time. A trend of high mortality levels has been recorded throughout the country between September 1997 and October 1998. The total number of declared dead pigs in that period reached 125 000 in 9 States of the Federal Republic: Lagos State, Ogun State, Kaduna State, Benue State, Enugu State, Akwa Ibom State, Rivers state, Plateau State and Delta State. Data are not normally collected on the field and we still ignore the real extension and spread of ASF, the limit of the infected areas and the precise location of the foci.

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SUMMARY