Abstract
Abstract The first confirmed case of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Serbia occurred in 2019. Since then, numerous outbreaks in domestic pigs and wild boars have been reported. Until April 2021, all the detected ASF cases were in backyard pigs. Beside backyard and smallholders farming systems as a dominant pig production system in Serbia, large commercial pig farms can also be found, located mostly in villages. In the beginning of April 2021, a large commercial farrow-to-finish pig farm in Serbia with almost 19,000 animals was affected with the ASF virus. The pig farm analysed in this paper is located in an area where ASF was confirmed earlier in both backyard and wild boars. In this study, we describe the overall epidemiological course of the ASF outbreak. Epidemiological investigation using a hypothesis-based approach was conducted in order to reconstruct the disease course until the official notification. All the available data from the farm were analysed with the aim to determine the high-risk period (HRP). Some of the key points to consider when it comes to the sources of infection and entry route of ASF are the following: contamination of the area in the immediate vicinity of the farm, risky human activities, irregularities and some omissions in the external farm biosecurity and immediate proximity of the city waste-yard where the communal waste is disposed of. It was concluded that when commercial pig farms are surrounded by villages with a large number of backyards, hence the anthropogenic factor is the key risk factor for ASF spreading.
Highlights
The first case of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Serbia was recorded in July, 2019 in the village Rabrovac, Mladenovac municipality in domestic backyard pigs [1]
The Veterinary Directorate of the Republic of Serbia issued a set of control and preventive measures to be implemented in the country and at the borders with Romania and Bulgaria as high risk areas in 2017, the first case was detected in the central region of Serbia
The presence of the ASF virus in backyard pig populations is a constant threat to domestic industrial pig production [9,10]
Summary
The first case of ASF in Serbia was recorded in July, 2019 in the village Rabrovac, Mladenovac municipality in domestic backyard pigs [1]. In the region of South-East Europe strong association of ASF with the domestic pig population on small holdings, where the animals are kept at low-biosecurity like backyards and even under free-range management was noted [4,5]. ASF transmission risks in the domestic pig production cycle are the highest when pig production is dominated by small holdings or backyards, with low levels of biosecurity [5,7]. The risk contact and probability for disease transmission between domestic pigs and wild boars are higher in such systems compared to industrialised (commercial) pig farming systems [8,9]. The backyard pig production in this region of the country is characterized with a very low level of biosecurity measures
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