Department of Agriculture officials in the Philippines are preparing to start a second and wider round of vaccination against African swine fever (ASF) for domestic pigs.
According to the Agriculture Secretary, this will include 150,000 doses of the AVAC live vaccine from Vietnam, reported the official Philippine News Agency last week.
This is the second phase of the government-controlled ASF vaccine campaign, and comes after the successful rollout of the first 10,000 doses. The initial campaign began at the end of August in Batangas, a province on the island of Luzon badly hit by ASF.
The 150,000 vaccine doses are yet to be delivered to the Philippines, the official said.
ASF returns to Hong Kong
Within the past few days, a wild pig has tested positive for the ASF virus, according to an official notification to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
The discovery comes after a nine-month hiatus from the disease, and was the result of a wild pig management strategy carried out by the authorities in the Special Administrative Region of China last week.
Found in a village in the New Territories, the infected animal has been culled. According to the report, there are no pig farms within 3 kilometers of the outbreak.
Disease developments elsewhere in Asia
As of November 25, Pig & People reported that the number of wild boar in South Korea testing positive for the ASF virus stands at 4,195. This represents an increase of 18 since November 13, with new cases in three provinces. Thirteen of the latest cases were found in the central province of North Chungcheong.
In Indonesia, the latest update on the ASF situation from the national animal health information system puts the country’s total ASF outbreaks since the start of this year at 359, involving 6,486 pigs in 11 provinces. It appears that these figures have been corrected from an apparent spike in outbreaks reported the previous week.
At the end of last month, Sri Lanka became the 20th Asian state to record cases of ASF since 2018.
4 European countries report new ASF cases in domestic pigs
Over the past week, further pigs have tested positive for the ASF virus in Germany, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.
Registering the most new outbreaks in this population over this period was Serbia. Confirmed during the period October 26 to November 14, the outbreaks occurred in five districts, including around the capital city, Belgrade.
Based on the latest notification to WOAH, affected was one farm with 144 swine. The others were in backyard herds, each comprising between one and 104 animals.
Also registering with WOAH one further ASF outbreak on a commercial farm was the Romanian veterinary agency. Presence of the ASF virus was detected in a herd of 1,222 pigs at a farm in the northwest of the country in mid-November. Fifty of the animals died. Also confirmed were outbreaks in three more of the country’s backyard herds, each with between two and 12 pigs.
In the south of Ukraine, 20 pigs tested positive for the ASF virus in the province of Odesa, according to a recent WOAH notification. With the outbreak described in the report as “other,” this may have involved a pig carcasses found discarded in a public place.
In Germany, the number of ASF outbreaks involving domestic pigs has risen to 19. First cases in the country were confirmed in September 2020.
According to the national veterinary agency, the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute (FLI), the latest positive ASF test was in a sow in Hesse. It brings to nine the number of outbreaks in this central German state since its first cases in July. The premises was in Bergstrasse — the same district as previous outbreaks. This source does not indicate either the type of premises affected, or the number of animals involved.
European swine outbreak total passes 700
So far this year, 705 ASF outbreaks in farmed pigs have occurred in 15 European countries, according to European Commission (EC; as of November 20). The EC’s Animal Disease Information System monitors outbreaks of listed animal diseases in European Union member states and adjacent countries.
This source puts the worst-affected state in terms of outbreak totals in 2024 as Serbia (290 so far this year), followed by Romania (189) and Ukraine (66).
For comparison, 16 of the region’s states recorded a total of 4,513 ASF outbreaks in this category with the EC during the whole of 2023.
Germany’s pig farmers to receive aid
Financial aid is on offer to pig farmers in Hesse.
In the past week, the Hesse state government has announced it is offering an “emergency” payment to pig farmers in the restricted zone III. This will take the form of a flat-rate subsidy based on herd size at the time the restricted zone was declared. The authority is promising a simple and straightforward application process, with details still to be finalized.
Furthermore, the state has promised further financial assistance for farmers in restricted zones II and III, whose livelihoods are threatened by the ongoing ASF situation. This, it says, will be implemented during the first six months of 2025, and aims to ensure the long-term viability of the region’s agriculture.
In recent days, the European Commission has approved the lifting of movement restrictions across part of restriction zone III at the end of November. According to the state’s agriculture minister, the decision demonstrates international recognition of Hesse’s disease control measures.
Italy’s ham producers struggle
Meanwhile, producers of specialty prosciutto (ham) in Italy are struggling in the ongoing ASF situation, according to a recent CNN report.
With its protected status, Parma ham can only be produced in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, using pig hind legs and salt from the area, and a traditional and time-consuming process. The product generates annual revenue of US$1.6 billion.
In the CNN report, one prosciutto business owner in the region said ASF has reduced the number of pork legs available by 8%, and prices have risen.
A farm owner in the Lombardy region said he had been forced to cull 2,000 of his pigs as the result of an ASF outbreak this year. He produces animals for Parma ham and San Daniele ham. The latter is similar to Parma ham, but with geographical protection in the northeastern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
According to CNN, ASF outbreaks have resulted in the culling of more than 200,000 pigs in the Lombardy region alone since it was first detected there in 2021. In the past two months, the cull is approaching 90,000. Close to 12 farms have ceased production.
The disease situation is being brought under control, CNN reports. However, challenges for the sector are exacerbated by import bans by some Asian markets.
Europe’s wild boar cases pass 6,000
Among their respective wild boar populations, 11 countries in the region registered further cases with the EC in the period November 13-20. Recording the most new cases during that week were Poland (81), Germany (65), Bulgaria (45), Latvia (33) and Hungary (22).
So far this year, 21 countries monitored by the EC have recorded a combined total of 6,089 outbreaks in their wild boar populations. Worst affected have been the wild boar populations of Poland (1,736 outbreaks), Italy (1,162), Latvia (768), Germany (696) and Lithuania (483).
During the whole of 2023, 20 countries in the region recorded with the EC more than 7,900 outbreaks in this category.
According to FLI, the first ASF-infected wild boar has been found in the Oberhavel district in Brandenburg. This brings the number of districts affected by the disease in this eastern German state to 10.
As the virus continues to spread around Europe, the authorities in Belgium have called on hunters to avoid entering areas at the highest risk of ASF.
In the Czech Republic, the state veterinary service reports that the number of ASF-infected wild boar has risen to 18. This includes four animals shot in the past week. Since the start of this month, police marksmen have been hunting the animals in Liberec — the region where all the country’s infected wild boar have been found so far.
Belgium's hunters have been asked to consider avoiding entry to the country's areas most at risk of ASF. Making the call at the start of the hunting season this month was the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, FAVV-AFSCA.
ASF awareness raised in Caribbean
Last week, an ASF Awareness Workshop was carried out in Antigua, reported Antigua News Room.
Attended by technicians in the agriculture ministry, the event aimed to share the knowledge and tools needed to prevent the emergence of ASF on the Caribbean island.
Participants received training on the symptoms of infection, ASF virus transmission, and the high economic costs associated with outbreaks of the disease.
Although the AVAC ASF Live vaccine is a promising tool, preventing the entry of the virus is Antigua’s main line of defense against the disease.
According to this source, Antigua and Barbuda is fostering awareness and regional cooperation as an example of disease control to other countries in the region.
So far, no cases of ASF have been detected in Antigua and Barbuda, which belongs to the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean.
Further west in the Caribbean is the island of Hispaniola. Part of the Greater Antilles island group, it is shared by the nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
After a prolonged hiatus, the ASF virus was detected again in both countries in 2021.
Between April 2021 and October 2022, 290 ASF outbreaks were recorded with WOAH by the authorities in the Dominican Republic. There were 31 outbreaks in the Republic of Haiti in the eight months to March 2022, based on WOAH notifications. For both nations, the outbreaks were widely dispersed across their respective administrative regions.
Disease situation eases in South Africa
Over the past month, South Africa’s veterinary authority has updated WOAH about the ASF situation in the country.
Although details of previously reported outbreaks have been updated, no further premises — commercial or otherwise — have been affected by the disease since September.
There are four ongoing ASF outbreak series in various regions of the country — one starting as long ago as April 2019. The outbreak total has reached 312 nationwide, with the latest outbreak starting in mid-September.
View our continuing coverage of the global African swine fever situation.
