Food safety risks from ASF-infected pork
The incident and the survival capability of the ASF virus
According to published reports, over 130 tons of pork infected with African swine fever (ASF) were brought into the warehouse of Ha Long Canned Food Joint Stock Company (HaLong Canfoco) for processing, of which approximately 2 tons were processed into finished products. The illicit ring procuring and transporting diseased pork related to this case has been prosecuted with 9 defendants, and was determined to have been operating over an extended period.
Among infectious swine diseases, African swine fever (ASF) is a viral disease with an extremely high mortality rate. The ASF virus belongs to the Asfarviridae family, featuring a resilient structure and long persistence in the environment as well as in pork products stored under conditions such as deep freezing, salting, or drying. Consequently, even a minuscule amount of contaminated meat entering the food chain can turn into a serious source of pathogen transmission.
Secondary bacteria and risks from diseased pork
Regarding human health, the ASF virus does not directly cause disease in humans due to differences in biological hosts. However, pigs infected with ASF before dying often experience sepsis, multi-organ necrosis, and severe secondary bacterial infections such as Salmonella, E. coli, Clostridium, Staphylococcus, and particularly Streptococcus suis.
Therefore, meat from pigs infected with ASF is not merely "tainted meat" but diseased tissue laden with microorganisms and toxic bacterial components, including heat-stable toxins that are difficult to eliminate entirely during cooking.
If people consume food prepared from diseased pork that has not been adequately heat-treated, they risk facing severe food poisoning, sepsis, acute kidney failure, multiple organ failure, and potentially death. In fact, over the years, Vietnam has recorded many cases of poisoning and death caused by Streptococcus suis infection related to handling or consuming unsafe pork.
Even if thermal processing can kill most live bacteria, certain toxic bacterial components may still persist, increasing the risk of prolonged gastrointestinal inflammation and immune dysfunction, and theoretically contributing to an elevated risk of precancerous lesions with prolonged exposure.
Demanding the removal of diseased pork from the food chain
From a health and food safety perspective, pork from animals infected with infectious diseases must never be used for human consumption under any circumstances. According to recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), meat products from animals with infectious diseases must undergo biological disposal and must never enter the food chain.