This comes after a total of 30 pigs died within three days after the farmer noticed they were sick. Zandisile Luphahla, the spokesperson of the department, says the farm is currently under quarantine and the department, in collaboration with the South African Pork Producers' Organisation, SAPPO, is now working together to apply disease control.

He says the free-range pigs affected were raised in four different camps of approximately 250 hectares each. There are wildlife, cattle, and goats in the camps. Surviving pigs and their products, as well as other wild porcine animals and their products, need to stay on the farm and cannot be removed. The area around the affected farm is also being monitored. He says there are no reasons for concern regarding the outbreak as the Northern Cape is an ASF free zone.  ASF is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs, characterised by high mortalities. It can be transmitted from warthogs to domestic pigs and through feeding the infected swill to pigs. The disease does not affect humans.

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That was Zandisile Luphahla, spokesperson of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, Rural Development, Environment and Nature Conservation in the Northern Cape.