To support the recovery of the South Asian nation’s pork industry previously decimated by African swine fever (ASF), Sri Lanka’s government is introducing a new disease insurance scheme.
The scheme was launched by an insurance board under the agriculture ministry, reports Sri Lanka Mirror. Its formation is the result of a decision by the Presidential Task Force aimed at ensuring the livelihood of the country’s swine farmers and mitigating financial losses.
This month, the scheme is promoting the insurance of breeding pigs, and offers compensation for animals lost through accidents and diseases (including ASF).
Providing up to a maximum of 200,000 rupee (LKR; US$600) per animal, annual insurance currently covers breeding animals between six months and 4.5 years of age.
ASF virus was first detected in Sri Lanka in October of 2024. Within the first month, 138 outbreaks occurred in domestic pigs, according to official notifications from the national animal health authority to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). Almost 28,000 pigs were directly affected.
In 2025, local media reported that around 2,500 farms had been hit by the disease, and that that mortalities were likely underreported.
The latest report to WOAH on the disease situation in Sri Lanka covers the latter half of last year, when around 300 domestic swine died from ASF in nine provinces. Total numbers are not recorded, and infections in wild pigs are also suspected.
ASF spreads in the Philippines
Outbreaks are ongoing in 11 regions of the country, according to the latest update on the ASF situation from the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI; dated July 24).
These data indicate a spread of the virus to a further four regions from the edition 14 days previously. In the Luzon regions of Ilocos, Central Luzon and Mimaropa, as well as Central Visayas, the disease appears to have re-emerged following a brief hiatus. Meanwhile, there continue to be active cases in two regions on the island of Mindanao, and elsewhere in Luzon and Visayas.
At the time, the largest numbers of communities affected by ASF were in the Negros Island Region, as well as the Cordillera Administrative Region and Central Luzon on the island of Luzon.
Since the BAI update was published, the official Philippine News Agency has reported new ASF cases in three communities in Negros Oriental, a province in the Negros Island Region. More than 90 pigs had been culled and more had died as a result of the infection.
Bulgaria records cases in domestic pigs
In the past week, WOAH was notified by the Balkans nation’s veterinary authority about a confirmed ASF outbreak in domestic pigs.
Affected was a herd of 42 animals at a province in the eastern province of Varna, which borders the Black Sea. All the pigs died at the premises, which bred Eastern Balkan pigs. Located in a forest, the farm was surrounded by a fence, but it is thought that the virus was transmitted to the farmed animals from the wild population.
While Bulgaria has been battling ASF in its wild boar population since 2018, this was the country’s first outbreak in domestic pigs reported to WOAH since March of 2024.
Also confirming to WOAH new outbreaks in farmed swine over the past week have been Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine. These added two, three, 43, and one additional outbreak to the countries’ totals, respectively.
One of the Romanian outbreaks occurred at a premises described as a “farm” with 249 pigs in the central county of Cluj. While two more appear to have involved the discovery of infected carcasses found in public places, the rest of the outbreaks affected small backyard herds across multiple counties.
In Moldova, the latest ASF outbreaks occurred in three different counties/territories in central and southern regions. All involved small backyard herds.
Both of the recent outbreaks in Bosnia-Herzegovina were in backyard herds in the same municipality in the Republic of Srpska.
In Ukraine, a pig carcass recently tested positive for the ASF virus in the southwestern province of Odesa. According to the WOAH report, this was discovered around 10km from the border with Moldova.
Europe’s farmed pig outbreak total approaches 600
Over the period July 30 to August 5, six countries in the region reported a total of 74 further ASF outbreaks in their domestic pigs to the European Commission (EC). Its Animal Disease Information System monitors selected listed animal diseases in European Union (EU) member states and some adjacent countries.
According to this source, Romania’s authorities confirmed 41 of these latest outbreaks, and Serbia a further 19. Croatia recorded nine more, Moldova and Ukraine two each, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, one.
These developments bring the regional total so far this year to 579 outbreaks in 11 countries in the region. For comparison, 940 outbreaks in domestic swine were recorded in 13 countries in 2025, according to the same source.
To date in 2026, Romania’s total is the highest at 210, followed by Serbia with 194, and Croatia with 130.
10 European nations record more wild boar cases
As of August 6, the EC’s System had logged 6,151 ASF outbreaks in wild boar in 18 countries.
During the whole of 2025, 19 countries registered a total of 11,150 outbreaks in this population with the database.
The latest nation to detect the virus for the first time ever was Finland. At the end of July, three wild boar carcasses tested positive for ASF at a single location in the southwest of the country. This event was included in the recent EC System update.
To date this year, Poland’s outbreak total in this population is the highest at 1,553, followed by Italy (1,011) and Lithuania (846).
A total of 106 new cases of ASF in wild boar were registered with the EC by 10 countries over the past week. These were Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain over the past week.
The Finnish Food Authority reports that the country’s first cases of ASF have been confirmed by the EU Reference Laboratory for African Swine Fever.
Meanwhile, genetic sequencing by the authority’s own animal virology lab has revealed the virus belongs to genotype II. Specifically, the virus belongs to genetic group 3, which was first identified in Ukraine in 2012, and since 2014, more widely in Baltic countries and elsewhere in Europe.
Based on genetic analysis of the virus, the route of entry into Finland remains uncertain, according to this source.
In Germany, local media Schweine reports that newly discovered cases of ASF in wild boar in the eastern state of Brandenburg require the disease restriction zones to be extended.
In July, the state’s first ASF-positive wild boar was detected in the district of Uckermark following a 14-month hiatus.
ASF developments in Africa
In a long-running ASF outbreak series that began in 2019, South Africa has recorded two more outbreaks affecting domestic swine.
According to the latest notification to WOAH, the virus was detected in two pig herds in different areas of Gauteng province between mid-May and early June of this year.
Affecting one village herd and a small farm, these bring the total so far to 235 outbreaks affecting close to 137,000 pigs.
In the past week, three West African nations have submitted to WOAH recent six-month summaries of the animal disease situation.
For the Republic of Benin and the Togolese Republic (Togo), these covered the second half of 2025.
Over this period in Benin, 290 wild pigs of unidentified species in four regions were affected by ASF over the reporting period.
A total of six new outbreaks were recorded in Togo — two in each of three regions — involving a total of 768 domestic pigs.
During the first six months of 2026, domestic swine in the Republic of Mali were hit by ASF, according to the WOAH report. Affected were 45 animals in two regions in the southwest of the country.
Disease impacts on the Dominican Republic pork sector
In recent years, the number of pig farmers in the Caribbean island nation has dropped by half, according to Dominican Today.
The source reports that the industry has been decimated by ASF — which re-emerged in April of 2021 after a 40-year hiatus — the rapid spread of the virus, its control, and the aftermath.
More than 300 outbreaks of the disease were reported to WOAH up to the end of 2024.
Those remaining in business reports that they are still struggling, now from high production costs and increased imports that are intended to maintain pork supplies and stabilize prices.
In order to start the production cycle, the animals must first test negative for the ASF virus, one farmer said. Then, the rising cost of swine feed and falling pork prices from plentiful imports have squeezed the farmer’s margins, making the business unviable for many.
View our continuing coverage of the global African swine fever situation.
