UK African swine fever risk status unchanged, after new Balkans outbreaks

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has issued a fresh reminder to the UK pork sector and all pig keepers of the steps needed to keep African swine fever (ASF) out of our pigs, following the arrival of the virus in further new locations in Europe.

The agency, which has left the UK’s ASF risk status unchanged, said the discovery of the virus in domestic pigs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia was ‘disappointing, but not surprising’.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina outbreak was in one pig on a domestic pig farm in Bijeljina in the north-east of the country, close to the borders with Serbia and Croatia, but, in its latest Europe ASF update, APHA said ‘several more’ outbreaks in domestic pigs in the country are yet to be reported to WOAH.

Croatia has also reported ASF for the first time, with cases on five domestic pig farms near Drenovci in the south-east of the country. These farms are around 30km from the outbreak in Bosnia and Herzegovina and are also close to the border with Serbia. All farms contained fewer than 10 pigs.

The outbreaks follow rapidly on from the ASF re-emergence in Greece and the Czech Republic.

APHA said: “These outbreaks were detected close to the border with Serbia which has, according to ADIS, reported over 160 outbreaks in domestic pigs so far in 2023, and is not subject to European Commission ASF restrictions.

“Additionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia were two of nine Balkan countries (which included Greece) identified by EFSA as having a very high chance (66- 100%) of disease spread inside their borders, within a year of introduction (EFSA, 2019).

APHA has reassessed UK risk levels, which remain unchanged. Despite a drop in confirmed cases in wild boar in 2022, ASF is still circulating in wild boar across much of eastern Europe and ‘remains a threat with EU pork production at its lowest level in almost a decade’, the agency said, adding that the latest cases in wild boar in new regions across Italy demonstrates the difficulty of containing the disease.

The likely pathways of introduction to these regions are human mediated transport of infected products or contaminated equipment / products (fomites), with subsequent exposure of susceptible animals, although movement of wild boar from nearby regions cannot be ruled out.

“Given the above, we consider that the risk of entry of ASF virus in live animals and products of animal origin (POAO) from affected countries, remains at MEDIUM (occurs regularly),” the agency said.

“The potential high risk for non-commercial imports of pork products from ASF affected areas remains of high concern. Evidence from inspections at Great Britain ports suggest that there are several vehicles illegally bringing pork meat into Great Britain from some regions of the EU affected by ASF.

“Some of these instances involved large quantities of porcine POAO, some of which appear to be home-slaughtered and arrive in Great Britain from an undisclosed origin as a non-commercial import, with poor levels of biosecurity and food hygiene.

“Therefore, the risk of ASF entering Great Britain, from the human-mediated pathway and moving porcine POAO, is considered to remain at HIGH (occurs very often), though there is considerable uncertainty around this until data is fully collated and analysed, and we will reassess as further information becomes available.”