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Europe’s ASF outbreak totals exceed milestones

Over the past week, two European countries have registered new cases of African swine fever (ASF) among domestic pigs.

European-Union-feed-regulations
artJazz | iStock.com

African swine fever virus has been detected at a large farm in Russia, as well as in two European backyard pig herds.

Over the past week, two European countries have registered new cases of African swine fever (ASF) among domestic pigs.

Most significant is an outbreak on a large farm in the Volga federal district of Russia. Of the almost 39,000 pigs present there, 31 died, according to the official report to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The fate of the rest of the herd in Samara oblast is not recorded by the agriculture ministry. In the Central federal district, ASF was also detected in the only pig at a holding in Voronezh oblast.

Since the start of the year, ASF outbreaks have been confirmed at multiple locations in these areas, as well as in the Southern federal districts.

ASF virus detected in another Polish backyard herd

Just one outbreak of ASF has been reported by the Polish chief veterinary office over the past week. Affected was a herd of 19 pigs in the Subcarpathian province (Podkarpackie).

This latest outbreak brings the country’s total outbreaks in domestic pigs since March to 102. The number of pigs directly impacted now stands at 56,990.

Outbreak total in Europe’s domestic pigs breaks through 1,000 for the year

Up to October 25, there have been 1,020 ASF outbreaks among domestic pigs in Europe since the start of 2020, according to the Animal Disease Notification System of the European Commission (EC). This system covers European Union member states and several surrounding countries, but not Russia.

The total has risen by 36 since the previous week’s update.  Of this increase, 32 of the new outbreaks were recorded in Romania, and two each in Poland and Ukraine.

From this source, worst affected has been Romania (842 outbreaks). In second place is Poland with 102 registered outbreaks, while Bulgaria has recorded 19. Within Europe, only the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine have registered new cases during October. There were confirmed outbreaks in five other states earlier this year.

During the whole of 2019, 1,908 outbreaks in domestic pigs were confirmed to the EC.

ASF cases in European wild boar now exceed 9,000

EC recorded 9,085 confirmed outbreaks of ASF in wild boar since the start of 2020 up to October 25. This represents an increase of 132 from the previous week. The 2019 total was 6,407 cases.

According to this source, Hungary has recorded the most outbreaks — 3,628 — which is an increase of 20 from the previous week. At 3,445, Poland’s total has risen by 58 over the same period.

Since the beginning of this month, seven other European states have confirmed ASF outbreaks to the EC: Romania (693 outbreaks so far this year), Bulgaria (447), Latvia (238), Slovakia (194), Lithuania (188), Germany (91) and Estonia (52).

Reporting new cases in wild boar to the OIE over the past week have been Germany (24), Hungary (21), Latvia (10) and Russia (2).

Latest updates from Germany’s federal agriculture ministry put the number of wild boar infected with ASF at 94, plus nine suspected cases.

Since ASF was first detected on September 10, all the country’s cases have been in wild boar, and confined to three districts in the eastern state of Brandenburg. The nation’s domestic pigs remain free of the disease.

View our continuing coverage of the global African swine fever situation.

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