Over the past two weeks, new outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) in farmed swine have been officially reported in just three European states, namely Moldova, Romania and Serbia.
Based on notifications from the national veterinary authorities to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), presence of the ASF virus was detected in one backyard herd in each of Moldova and Serbia earlier this month.
Around the same time, three new outbreaks were confirmed in Romania. While two involved small noncommercial herds, the other impacted a commercial farm with close to 6,800 pigs in the southeastern county of Buzau.
2026 European swine outbreak total jumps to 1,556
So far this year, one or more outbreaks in domestic pigs have been reported in 12 of the region's states. This is according to the latest update of the Animal Disease Information System (dated Oct. 21). This database from the European Commission (EC) monitors selected transboundary animal diseases in European Union (EU) member states and some adjacent countries.
During the whole of 2025, a total of 940 outbreaks in this category were logged with the EC System by 13 countries.
Of the 340 new outbreaks reported to the EC in the period Oct. 8-21, 325 appear to have been reported retrospectively by Serbia. A sharp uptake in new cases on the Balkan country's farms and backyard herds has occurred since mid-2026.
To date this year, 1,020 of the 1,556 ASF outbreaks in farmed swine registered with the EC System have occurred in Serbia. Romania accounts for a further 332 of the total, and Croatia for 130 with a figure unchanged since August.
Region's wild boar outbreaks pass 7,000
In the period Oct. 8-21, 12 European countries recorded 229 new ASF outbreaks involving their wild boar populations, according to the latest EC System update.
Adding the most new cases over those two weeks were Bulgaria (74), Poland (57), Latvia (26) and Hungary (22).
As of Oct. 21, a total of 7,005 outbreaks in wild boar had been registered with the EC's System by 18 of the region's states during 2026.
For comparison, 11,150 outbreaks in this population were logged with the System by 19 countries during the whole of 2025.
Highest figures this year are for Poland (1,784), followed by Italy (1,111), Lithuania (863), Germany (732), Hungary (658) and Latvia (637).
Study examines ASF spread in wild boar
A team of scientists working for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has examined the spread of the ASF virus in the wild boar population of several EU countries in recent years.
From the data, they developed models to describe how the virus enters uninfected areas, and how it spreads and persists once it has entered.
According to the researchers based in France and Spain, the density of wild boar played a role affecting the entry of ASF into a previously unaffected area. However, persistence of the infections varies depending on local epidemiology, such as surveillance levels, locating boar carcasses, level of hunting and reporting. Furthermore, environmental factors — rainfall, temperature, forest habitats and human activity — were also identified as factors affecting disease persistence.
Published by the EFSA at the end of September, the scientific paper is entitled "Determination of African swine fever occurrence, persistence and spread across Europe" by first-name author Clara Delecroix, and others.
Further ASF outbreaks in Asia
In the Philippines, there are ongoing outbreaks in domestic swine in 13 of the country's 18 regions, according to the latest update on the disease situation from Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI; dated Oct. 9).
This is the same number of affected regions as the agency reported in its previous report dated Sept. 24. However, the disease appears to have been brought under control in the Western Visayas region, while it has re-emerged in Soccsksargen on the island of Mindanao in the intervening weeks.
Currently, the worst-affected region in terms of the number of communities with ASF outbreaks is Isabela. This province in the Cagayan Valley region on Luzon had ongoing cases in 74 communities at the time of the BAI report.
Earlier this month, the veterinary authority in Malaysia registered with WOAH eight further ASF outbreaks involving domestic pigs.
The report covers infected backyard herds, each comprising up to 43 animals, and starting between May 5 and July 15 in Sarawak. The state is located in East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo.
These bring to 14 the number of outbreaks in this part of Malaysia since January 2025. The latest cases are the first in Sarawak since January of this year.
View our continuing coverage of the global African swine fever situation.
2 more classical swine fever (CSF) outbreaks in Japan
Earlier this month, pigs at two farms in the Kanto region were hit by CSF, bringing the nation's total to date in this population in 2026 to eight.
According to the latest WOAH notification, around 2,500 swine were affected by an outbreak in the Shibukawa city area of Gunma prefecture. Confirmation of the infection with a wild-type virus followed the owner reporting symptoms including diarrhea in the animals to the authorities.
Within a few days, the veterinary agency reported that selective culling had been carried out, but that this would be extended to include piglet born at the premises during the control period.
Around one week later, Japan's agriculture ministry confirmed a further farm outbreak, affecting around 2,800 pigs in Kasumigaura city in the prefecture of Ibaraki.
These bring Japan's CSF outbreak total in domestic pigs since 2018 to 108.
For the first time, a CSF infection in a wild boar has been confirmed in the prefecture of Chiba prefecture, according to the ministry earlier this month. Chiba is also located in the Kanto region, which is on the island of Honshu and includes Tokyo. The infected animal was found dead.
Chiba was already designated as an area where the distribution of oral CSF vaccine for wild boar was recommended and carried out. Following confirmation of this latest case, the ministry reports that the distribution of the vaccine in the area will be stepped up, as will the surveillance of the area's wild boar.
More than 5,000 wild boar in Japan have tested positive for the CSF virus since 2018, according to WOAH notifications.
Like ASF, CSF (also known as hog cholera) is a notifiable disease that affects members of the pig family, according to the WOAH CSF page.
Both diseases cause devastating losses in domestic and wild swine populations, but neither directly impacts human health.
Despite the similar names, symptoms and impacts, CSF and ASF are caused by unrelated viruses. To date, ASF virus has never been detected in Japan.
