Nine countries collectively comprise a “region of concern” identified by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which is spearheading a major campaign to raise awareness and help halt the spread of African swine fever (ASF) in southeastern Europe. These high-risk nations have been targeted by the initiative due to their proximity to other countries wher ASF is present. Still, ASF remains a prominent threat to the European meat processing industry, which is carefully monitoring what is happening in neighboring countries and working toward eradicating this disease.

“The management of the disease is a key asset for our businesses, which are cooperating with the national authorities to prevent the disease and to eradicate it,” Paolo Patruno, Deputy Secretary General of Clitravi, a European liaison center for the meat processing industry, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“Unfortunately a bad management of the disease can have huge consequences on our sector. As an example, the Chinese outbreak led to a huge increase of prices of European pigmeat, which put our sector under pressure,” he notes.

Respecting the World Organisation for Animal Health [OIE] standards must be identified as a key priority for the EU trade policy, urges Clitravi. “The outbreaks in the EU countries, on the other side, have an impact on exports being a damage for the entire sector. It is also important to note that some countries do not recognize the World Organisation for Animal Health [OIE] rules and the European regionalization, which is a complication for exports in case of outbreak.”

Under this new ESFA-led campaign, the countries in focus are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. The initiative is aimed at groups of people and individuals who come into contact with domestic pigs and wild boar, such as pig farmers and hunters.

“EFSA provides scientific advice to help inform the decisions taken at EU level and by national authorities. We have been working closely with the European Commission and the Member States to fight the spread of the disease. Areas of EFSA advice include reviewing the measures applied by the affected Member States for controlling the spread of ASF in wild boar and measures for managing wild boar populations in different geographical areas of the EU,” Edward Bray, Communications Officer at EFSA, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

EFSA will also engage wih veterinary organizations, hunting associations, farmers’ groups, customs officers, border police, local governments, tourist operators and travelers. “[The campaign will comprise] radio and TV ads, print ads, infographic, factsheets and media activities,” says Bray.

Speaking about the impact of COVID-19 upon efforts to mitigate the spread of ASF, Bray responds: “We don’t have data on this. Clearly the news cycle is being heavily dominated by COVID-19-related coverage, leaving less space for other important issues. It’s possible the messages are not amplified as much as they would have been before COVID-19. Initially, we wanted to target our campaign at travelers too but due to the COVID-19 situation and slowing down of tourism, we are focusing more on hunters and farmers.”

Prevalence of ASF in Europe
The ASF virus is harmless to humans but has caused significant economic disruption in many countries. There are currently no vaccines for ASF, so an outbreak can necessitate the slaughter of large numbers of farm-kept pigs in affected areas.

“We are satisfied by the current EU framework on ASF and we believe that the European rules – if applied in properly – can lead to good results in terms of eradication of the disease. We see successful cases wher authorities apply the rules in a strict way, such as Czech Republic, which eradicated the disease in the last years. Meanwhile, in some other EU Member States, the efforts of the authorities are not as successful,” Patruno at Clitvari maintains.

In January, EFSA published its latest annual updat on the presence of ASF in the EU. In 2019, the area of the EU affected by ASF expanded progressively, moving mainly in a southwestern direction.

“The situation varies substantially between Member States, due to multiple influences including the structure of domestic pig production (in particular, the proportion of backyard holdings), geographical conditions and the characteristics of the wild boar population,” highlights Bray at EFSA.

Surveillance activities, like testing for virus detection wild boars and domestic pigs that are found sick or dead, remain the most effective means for early detection of ASF. “This can be complemented with awareness campaigns for travelers, hunters and farmers in order to limit the risk of spread via movements of people, as well as to increase the probability of early detection,” says Bray.

“Other preventive measures should also be considered, like feeding bans or limiting wild boar access to attractive crops such as maize, along with actions to increase the annual wild boar hunting harvest. On a separate note, a recent EFSA opinion also finds that hunting tourism is considered to be one of the factors that may influence the risk of spread of ASF.”

In recent reports, analysis in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) describes a group of H1N1 swine influenza viruses that have “the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans” and that are therefore of potential pandemic concern. While independent experts argue against the chances of a global outbreak, PNAS continues to stress the need for increased monitoring of swine health in pig farms across the high-risk region.