section_path: Pests and diseases
section_name: Pests and diseases
paragraph_text: Pests and diseases
  
  Pigs are subject to many pests and diseases which can seriously affect productivity and cause death. These include parasites such as Ascaris roundworms, virus diseases such as the tick -borne African Swine Fever, bacterial infections such as Clostridium, arthritis caused by Mycoplasma, and stillbirths caused by Parvovirus.
  
  Some parasites of pigs are a public health risk as they can be transmitted to humans in undercooked pork. These are the pork tapeworm Taenia solium; a protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii; and a nematode, Trichinella spiralis. Transmission can be prevented by thorough sanitation on the farm; by meat inspection and careful commercial processing; and by thorough cooking, or alternatively by sufficient freezing and curing.