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African swine fever - situation and steps taken in Croatia

African swine fever (ASF) is a viral contagious disease of domestic swine and wild boars manifested by infectious and hemorrhagic syndromes. The lethality of the disease may be as high as 100%. The occurrence of ASF is a cause of great direct and indirect economic losses in the swine industry due to the disease mortality rate as well as to strict and expensive eradication measures that must be carried out. Even though ASF is not a threat to human health, its occurrence may have a negative social impact. ASF was described at the beginning of the 20th century in Kenya and since then has entered Europe in 1957 and eradicated forty years later, and then again in 2007, when the virus spread from Caucasus to the European Union with first cases of disease reported in 2014. Currently, apart from Africa, ASF is detected in Russia (2007), Ukraine (2012), Belorussia (2013), Poland (2014), Latvia (2014), Lithuania (2014), Estonia (2015), Moldavia (2016), Romania (2017), Czech Republic (2017), Hungary (2018), Belgium (2018) and Bulgaria (2018), as well as China (2018), Mongolia (2019), Vietnam (2019) and Cambodia (2019). The wild boar has been recognized as the main reservoir of ASF virus in Europe, therefore a high density of the wild boar population, such as in Croatia and extensive swine production systems may present important risk factors for viral spread. Since there is no therapy for ASF, and currently there is no efficient vaccine available, appropriate and high quality management in hunting grounds and implementation of strict biosecurity measures in domestic swine farms are the only tools for ASF prevention. Even though ASF has never been reported in Croatia, measures for the early detection and diagnosis of the disease were implemented in 2010 when the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) prescribed active and passive monitoring of domestic swine and wild boars and nominated the Croatian veterinary institute in Zagreb as the national referent laboratory for ASF diagnosis. In 2019, on the bases of a risk analysis produced by an Expert team appointed by MoA, showing that Croatia is under a high risk of ASF occurrence, additional measures for the prevention of ASF and its spread were prescribed such as reducing the number of wild boars and thorough inspection of all swine farms in Croatia in regards to the quality of biosecurity measures implemented. Since different sectors must be involved in ASF recognition, collaboration and coordination of activities among swine holders, hunters, veterinarians, and other interested parties has been enhanced and workshops for better understanding of ASF are continuously conducted.

african swine fever, measures, challenges

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