AllAfrica reports that the move is being taken in respect to the Livestock Diseases Act 17 of 2003 and already an official directive from the City Council has been circulated throughout the area.

Official statements from the Livestock Department at the Regional Commissioner's Office indicate that the disease, which was first reported early last month, has already killed 350 pigs in just one Ward.

So far the disease has neither vaccine nor cure. The report states that at the moment, Arusha no longer sells or buys pigs from other regions in order to contain the outbreak.

However the city still experiences many stray pigs that move about in the urban area especially at the garbage dump sites in Muriet.

It is still not known how many pigs the City has, but figures from the Regional Livestock Department indicate that the whole Arusha Region has a total of 27, 475 pigs.

Apart from the city centre, other parts of Arusha where signs of the Africa Swine fever are being spotted include Arusha Rural, Longido and Meru Districts.

The report warns that swine fever spreads very fast and is able to cause deaths in the affected animals within a period of 24 hours.

However, the fever, according to veterinary experts, does not affect human beings. The council directive is also cautioning people not to allow pigs to roam about, fending for their own food because they may become susceptible to infections from loitering hogs whose number keeps increasing in Arusha.