This is purely a pig disease, it has actually no impact on human health

Meat and Livestock Commission

The symptoms of swine fever are loss of appetite and a high temperature.

The affected animals may also have red or purple areas of discoloration on the skin.

The disease can be transmitted directly from animal to animal, by contact with infected pigs or pig slurry and through feeding pigs waste food containing infected meat.

It can also be spread by transporting pigs in vehicles which have carried infected animals and which have not been properly disinfected afterwards.

Chris Lukehurst, pig marketing manager at the Meat and Livestock Commission, stressed that CSF did not represent a threat to human health.

"This is purely a pig disease, it has actually no impact on human health, either through contact with the pigs or with the meat that comes from the pigs," he said.

Humane slaughter

Thousands of pigs in the areas currently affected in the UK have been destroyed.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) said the pigs were being killed humanely.

The affected areas are under strict protection zones

The carcasses, a spokeswoman said, were being buried on the farm in question, or transported to another site following precautions to prevent the spread of the disease.

A 3km protection zone has been put into effect around the infected farms and it is now illegal to move any pig within that area unless it is going for slaughter with the written permission of Maff.

Farmers will not be allowed to move pigs on or off the infected holdings for 21 days.

The farms cannot be restocked for 30 days after the premises have been disinfected.

Cause unclear

It is still not clear what caused the outbreak which is being investigated by an epidemiological team from Maff.

Theories that it is linked to animal feed or infected semen have not yet been confirmed.

Maff officials are to visit all farms within the infected areas over the next week.

Each pig will be examined for the disease, but tests will take three to four days to be confirmed.

Maff has said farmers would be compensated for those animals the ministry ordered to be slaughtered.

But no compensation would be paid for those animals which died before they could be destroyed.

It is hoped compensation claims will be settled within 30 days.