Farmers on high alert over African swine fever: one single case leads to export ban

African swine fever, which has not yet appeared in all European countries, is spreading quickly across the continent, while farmers are calling for more controls on the transport of animals from other countries.

Pig farmers are on high alert because of the rapid spread of African Swine Fever (ASF). This hemorrhagic disease, for which there is neither a cure nor a vaccine, affects pigs and wild boar and has already led to the slaughter of 1.5 million pigs in the EU. Although ASF has not yet reached France, Italy or Spain, it has already appeared in Greece and outbreaks have been detected on the French-German border. If an outbreak is detected in one country, it would mean a complete stop to pig meat exports (live and non-live) to countries that are not members of the European Union.

The disease does not affect humans, but is contagious among pigs and leads to their death. Apart from the massive slaughter of herds, the economic consequences for the sector would be catastrophic, as person in charge of the pig sector in Spain COAG, warned: “If a case of ASF occurs in a wild boar, most exports would automatically stop. We could sell on the European market, but we would lose the Chinese, Korean, Japanese and American markets… These markets would be closed to us, we could no longer sell pork, and now we export practically 60% of production to these countries”.

African swine fever was introduced into Russia from the Caucasus region in 2007 and spread from there to Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. The trickle of cases continued, with most cases traced to infected wild pigs. In 2020, the first case was detected in a domestic pig in Greece, and the first outbreak was also confirmed in Germany. In just two years, ASF has already killed 1.5 million pigs in Europe, a figure that rises to 2 million worldwide if pigs and wild boar are counted.

The same spokesperson denounced “They are playing Russian roulette with the ASF”, recalling that “all the major health crises we have suffered have come by land, and right now we have the same risk”. Every month 200,000 piglets arrive in Spain for fattening, most of them from the Netherlands, which is why COAG claims that both the transport and the animals “have an assured traceability with the greatest possible control. We cannot be careless.”

Trucks infected with ASF

Livestock transport trucks should be monitored. Calves are moved inside the EU in trucks from ASF-positive countries. The calves do not carry the disease, but the transport may be infected if it transported sick piglets the previous week. 

There are not enough slaughterhouses in case of an outbreak

Some of the aspects that still need to be improved are the “identified deficiencies in the cleaning and disinfection centers for livestock transport vehicles on the road. The “high number of movements of live animals from other Member States” is undoubtedly another factor increasing the risk of the disease being introduced into all European countries. Some European officials admit that there are not enough slaughterhouses because “slaughter capacity is limited, especially on large farms and in areas with high animal density”.

Besides monitoring the health of pigs in pig farms, the big challenge in this case is to detect the disease in wild pigs, i.e., feral pigs. And in this front, hunters play a fundamental role. According to the researchers, ASF has spread rapidly in large parts of Europe, mainly because of the large wild boar populations, which increased by 700% in Europe in recent years and this epidemic vector moves many kilometers in one day. It is the main cause of disease transmission in the countries. Demands to control wild boar population are mounting year on year.

PUROH Cyclohnic has shown a reduction of pig mortality in farms, by killing virus and other pathogens. Installing this type of disinfection in the animal chain and farms would facilitate the management and control of such epidemics and many other affecting the livestock industry.

COVID-19 showed the relevance of zoonotic epidemics, and the need to find ways to protect human population from potential jumps of virus from animals to humans.

The use of new innovative technologies which emit disinfectant natural radicals called Open-Air Factor, may certainly contribute to the containment of these epidemics. PUROH has a wide range of devices that have mastered the safe and natural emission of an innocuous disinfection reaction. It is lethal to microorganisms including virus, bacteria and mold, but are harmless to animals and humans.  

While diseases are easier to detect on a farm, infected wild animals continue to roam, they are difficult to locate and their carcasses are often left unnoticed in fields. It is therefore important that hunters and people living in rural areas undertake surveillance so that they can raise the alarm if they discover a case of ASF or other animal epidemics like Avian Flu which have in aquatic wild birds their reservoir, should notify the authorities as soon as possible.