A large farm is among the 38 latest outbreaks of African swine fever in Romania.
The European state officially reporting the greatest number of new outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) during the past week is Romania.
Outbreaks were confirmed across much of the country, according to the national veterinary authority. Its reports to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) outline 38 new confirmed outbreaks on the disease, affecting more than 42,000 pigs.
One of the premises was a farm in the central-southern region of Arges. Here, the virus was detected this month after 23 of the almost 41,800 pigs died. The rest of the herd has been destroyed, as have all those in 37 backyard herds that have tested positive for ASF.
New outbreaks in domestic pigs in Russia, and Ukraine
Also reporting new cases of ASF in domestic pigs was Ukraine. The first outbreak in the oblast since July 2019, the outbreak was at a farm in Vinnitsa. Here, five of the 460 animals died. The rest of the herd has been destroyed, according to the official report to the OIE from the country’s animal health agency. Located in the west of Ukraine, the oblast borders Moldova, but the outbreak appears to have been well away from the frontier.
In Russia, there has been one outbreak in a backyard herd in Samara oblast in the Volga federal district. According to the agriculture ministry’s report to the OIE, two of the 16 pigs died in February, and the rest of the herd has been destroyed.
Up to February 17, there have been 137 confirmed outbreaks of ASF among domestic pigs in Europe since the start of 2020, according to the European Commission (EC). The total has risen by 15 since the previous week. From this source, worst affected has been Romania (125 outbreaks), while Bulgaria has reported nine outbreaks, and there was one each in Greece and Ukraine.
This month, authorities in Greece confirmed the country’s first ever ASF cases, bringing the number of European states reporting the disease so far this year to four.
Africa: ASF ‘resolved’ in Zimbabwe
After a period of four months without any new ASF cases in Zimbabwe, the agriculture ministry has declared to the OIE that the disease situation has been “resolved.”
In August and September of last year, there were a total of seven outbreaks of ASF. All were in free-range village pigs of mixed ages in the Mount Darwin area of Marshonaland Central. In the northeast of the country, this region shares a border with Mozambique, and the outbreaks occurred near to the frontier.
Last week, veterinary authorities in Sierra Leone informed the OIE about its first ever cases of ASF. These occurred in the last four months of 2019, making the West African state the sixth country on the continent to officially report ASF last year.
New cases among European wild boar
With 192 new cases, Romania’s animal health agency has reported the highest number of ASF cases in wild boar to the OIE during the past week. Hungary had 130, Serbia 25, Latvia 5 and Ukraine 1.
This year, there have been 1,705 confirmed outbreaks of ASF among European wild boar up to February 17, according to the EC. This represents an increase of 193 over a period of one week.
According to this source, Poland has recorded the most outbreaks — 584 — which is a jump of 91 from the previous week. Other states to have confirmed ASF outbreaks to the EC so far this year are Hungary (514), Romania (236), Bulgaria (176), Latvia (60), Lithuania (48) and Italy (32). Belgium, Estonia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine have each reported fewer than 30 outbreaks in 2020. EC figures do not include Moldova or Russia.
View our continuing coverage of the global African swine fever situation.
