Aug 2nd, 2022
3 mins
Updated outbreak assessment for African swine fever in wild boar and domestic pigs in Eastern Europe and Belgium
Since the previous report in May 2022, a case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in domestic pigs in a new region of Germany, roughly 15km from the Netherlands border.
Clinical signs were detected in sows on 1 July 2022 and disease control measures immediately put in place.
The latest cases in Germany represent new “jumps” in disease distribution which is the fifth such event in Europe in the last two months.
This is concerning as it would appear that none of these cases have arisen as a result of the movement of infected pigs or wild boar. Instead, the other likely pathways are human mediated transport of infected products or contaminated equipment / products (fomites). This is confirmed by the genotyping of the virus from the new outbreaks and the epidemiological investigations.
Therefore, while the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, because of the regular detection of outbreaks and wild boar cases in new areas as a result of human-mediated routes, this particular pathway is now considered to be HIGH. There is considerable uncertainty as the movement of people into the UK at present is affected by travel disruption, fuel prices and reducing seasonal worker numbers.
To read more about the update, click here.
