Abstract
African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious disease that affects the domestic pig and wild boar population. The aim of this study was to describe the introduction and spread of the ASF virus in Western Europe (1960–1995) and in Eastern Europe (2007–2018), with particular emphasis on the current ASF situation in Poland and its challenges and future perspectives. The first ASF outbreak in Europe was reported in Portugal in 1957, with the virus spreading over most of Western Europe over the next 30 years. In Eastern Europe, the virus was first observed in Georgia in 2007, from where the disease spread quickly to other neighboring countries, reaching Poland in 2014. Since then, there have been 3341 confirmed cases in the wild boar population in Poland. Although there have been no confirmed cases of wild boars coming into contact with domestic pigs, the first notified case concerning domestic pigs was reported in July 2014. Since then, there have been a total of 213 confirmed outbreaks of ASF on Polish pig farms. Given the virulence of the ASF virus and the myriad of transmission routes across Europe, the monitoring of this disease must be a priority for Europe.
Highlights
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly virulent arbovirus belonging to the Asfarviridae family, genus Asfivirus [1,2]
This study presents a chronological overview of the occurrence of ASF in Europe, with almost five years of fully reported disease presence in Poland (2014–2018)
Since the first outbreak was reported in Georgia in 2007, the epidemiological situation has changed rapidly in Eastern European countries and EU member states
Summary
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly virulent arbovirus belonging to the Asfarviridae family, genus Asfivirus [1,2]. The various transmission routes of ASF, such as through direct and indirect contact with infected pigs, contaminated materials and food, and Ornithodoros ticks, contributed to a fast spread of ASFV across the African continent and the subsequent introduction of ASFV in Europe. Current measures implemented to control ASFV are based on rapid and accurate disease diagnosis, immediate slaughtering, and safe disposal of infected animals [3,4,17,18]. The first objective of this study was to present the ASF epidemiological situation in Europe, dividing the outbreaks into two distinct chronological periods: the Western European period that began in 1957 and ended in 1995, and the subsequent Eastern European outbreak that occurred between. The second objective was to describe the current epidemiological situation of ASF in Poland, following the first documented case of ASF reported in February 2014 to the present day (December, 2018)
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