UK ASF risk increased to ‘High’ from human mediated routes
The Government has increased the UK’s African swine fever (ASF) risk status in response in response to worrying new outbreaks in Germany, sparked by human spread.
The virus has recently been confirmed in domestic pigs in a new region of Germany, in Emsland, Lower Saxony, roughly 15km from the Netherlands border. Located in an area with a high density of pig farms, this is approximately 300km from the nearest reports in wild boar in Mecklenberg-Vorpommen and 500km from the recently reported outbreak in domestic pigs in the south of the country, close to the French border.
A further outbreak in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where the disease has been previously reported in wild boar and domestic pigs, was also detected on a holding of 1,300 fattening pigs.
“This report in northwest Germany represents another significant jump for ASF and serves as an important reminder of the ability of ASF to spread long distances to a previously unaffected region, often via human-mediated routes, as was observed in Belgium in 2018 and more recently in north-western and central regions of Italy, in southwest Germany near the French border and further afield,” APHA said in its latest update on ASF in Europe.
By Alistair Driver / Pig World
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