8.7 Surveillance
Early disease detection is the key to maintain a sound animal health and
is the most effective way to control ASF (Gervasi et al., 2020).
Laboratory diagnosis for detection of ASF as well differentiation of ASF
with diseases with similar symptoms such as CSF, Acute salmonellosis,
Swine erysipelas, Porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome, and
Aujeszky’s disease should be implemented with proven and rapid
diagnostic techniques to establish an accurate diagnosis within a short
time. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is currently the most commonly
used technique for the etiological diagnosis of ASF by amplifying the
fragment of viral DNA present in the sample (Sanchez-Vizcaino,
2010).However, in developing countries like India, laboratories to
detect such infectious diseases are often sparely distributed and access
may be limited by economic or geographical factors. In such situations,
the use of user-friendly kits or pen-side diagnostics (lateral flow
assay, biosensors, mobile PCR assay and isothermal assay techniques)
(Goswami and Borkataki, 2017) can have great potential to detect the
disease in laboratory protocols. For the rapid detection of antigen in
the field, the use of economic and simple tools such as
immunochromatographic strips are suitable alternate diagnostic device
essential for surveillance and control strategies (Cappai et al.,
2018).It is also important to note that, veterinarians and livestock
producers should be informed of the risk of ASF and the importance of
reporting an outbreak by means of training and awareness camps by
disease experts and professionals to ensure good field surveillance.
Early disease detection, will, therefore, depend on the right balance
between field surveillance and laboratory measures of disease detection.