African Swine Fever in maps
In the last couple of weeks the messages have been tumbling over each other – African Swine Fever seems to have settled in the European Union, as messages keep coming from Latvia, Poland and Lithuania.
Now also farms are being affected, it’s time for some mapping.
This link shows exactly on which locations in the European Union African Swine Fever (ASF) has been found. The information used was obtained by consulting the website of the International Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
The only thing that was not reported here is the discovery this week of African Swine Fever on a major professional and exemplary swine farm in Lithuania. Idavang’s Rupinskai farm, managed by Danish owners, housed 19,000 pigs, which all have to be culled.
When put together, a couple of things can be seen:
- All confirmed ASF cases – except two in northern Latvia – have happened within 30 km of the borders of the European Union. In this case, the border with Belarus. Cases in Poland even happened in a very small strip in Podlaskie province.
- Not hoped, nevertheless likely: Will the virus soon be hitting Estonia too?
- The virus appears to thrive in warmer, dryer weather, as January and February only showed two reports each, late May two more followed after which June showed six confirmations, and July so far has generated 27 reported cases of ASF.
Perhaps most worrisome is that no longer can be said that ‘it’s only wild boars’ carrying ASF around. Pigs in villages were affected and now two pig farms – one small in Poland and one professional large one in Lithuania as well.
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
