Joining the club: First detection of African swine fever in wild boar in Germany

Sauter‐Louis, Carola; Forth, Jan Hendrik; Probst, Carolina; Staubach, Christoph; Hlinak, Andreas; Rudovsky, Annett; Holland, Diana; Schlieben, Patricia; Göldner, Melanie; Schatz, Juliane; Bock, Sabine; Fischer, Melina; Schulz, Katja; Homeier‐Bachmann, Timo; Plagemann, Ralf; Klaaß, Ulf; Marquart, Ronny; Mettenleiter, Thomas C.; Beer, Martin; Conraths, Franz Josef; Blome, Sandra

doi:10.22541/au.160253806.62312023/v1

Cited by 26 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The course within the individual clusters in Germany was comparable to that in Czechia and Belgium, but the overall situation showed clear differences, due to the multitude of clusters. According to the estimated minimum post‐mortem intervals (PMI), which were estimated from the decomposition of the wild boar carcasses, ASFV was most likely to be introduced into Germany in the beginning of July 2020, at the latest (Sauter‐Louis et al., 2021). Specific prevention and control measures implemented during the reporting period After the first case of ASF was detected in wild boar in Germany in September 2020, it was obvious that the successful control measures from Czechia and Belgium were used as orientation for the German control strategy with the aim of preventing further spread of the disease.…”

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Epidemiological analyses of African swine fever in the European Union

Vicente¹,

Anette²,

Gogin³

et al. 2022

EFS2

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This report provides a descriptive analysis of the African swine fever (ASF) Genotype II epidemic in the affected Member States in the EU and two neighbouring countries for the period from 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021. ASF continued to spread in wild boar in the EU, it entered Germany in September 2020, while Belgium became free from ASF in October 2020. No ASF outbreaks in domestic pigs nor cases in wild boar have been reported in Greece since February 2020. In the Baltic States, overall, there has been a declining trend in proportions of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive samples from wild boar carcasses in the last few years. In the other countries, the proportions of PCR-positive wild boar carcasses remained high, indicating continuing spread of the disease. A systematic literature review revealed that the risk factors most frequently significantly associated with ASF in domestic pigs were pig density, low levels of biosecurity and socio-economic factors. For wild boar, most significant risk factors were related to habitat, socio-economic factors and wild boar management. The effectiveness of different control options in the so-named white zones, areas where wild boar densities have been drastically reduced to avoid further spread of ASF after a new introduction, was assessed with a stochastic model. Important findings were that establishing a white zone is much more challenging when the area of ASF incursion is adjacent to an area where limited control measures are in place. Very stringent wild boar population reduction measures in the white zone are key to success. The white zone needs to be far enough away from the affected core area so that the population can be reduced in time before the disease arrives and the timing of this will depend on the wild boar density and the required population reduction target in the white zone. Finally, establishing a proactive white zone along the demarcation line of an affected area requires higher culling efforts, but has a higher chance of success to stop the spread of the disease than establishing reactive white zones after the disease has already entered in the area.

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Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiological analyses of African swine fever in the European Union

Vicente¹,

Anette²,

Gogin³

et al. 2022

EFS2

Self Cite

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“…Only 3 weeks later, an ASF‐positive wild boar was found 60 km north of the first case, also close to the Polish‐German border at a distance of less than 2 km. One month later (31 October 2020), an infected wild boar was detected approximately 60 km south of the first case less than 200 m away from the Polish‐German border (Sauter‐Louis et al., 2020). According to the estimated minimum post‐mortem intervals (Probst et al., 2020), which were estimated based on the decomposition status of the wild boar carcasses at the time, when they were found, ASF virus (ASFV) was most likely introduced into Germany in the beginning of July 2020 at the latest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the detection of the first ASF‐positive wild boar in Western Poland, surveillance measures resulted in the detection of 1683 ASF‐positive wild boar in that area until mid‐2020 (Mazur‐Panasiuk et al., 2020). One of the cases was found only 10.4 km away from the Polish‐German border (Sauter‐Louis et al., 2020). According to Pejsak et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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African swine fever: Why the situation in Germany is not comparable to that in the Czech Republic or Belgium

Sauter‐Louis

Schulz

Richter

et al. 2021

Transbounding Emerging Dis

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After the first occurrence of African swine fever (ASF) in Germany in September 2020, control measures were implemented that resembled those taken in the Czech Republic and Belgium, the only two countries that succeeded in eliminating ASF from their territory so far in the current epidemic. In the present study, the epidemiological course of ASF in the first 6 months since introduction in these three countries is compared. Within 6 months, Germany experienced more cases than the Czech Republic and Belgium. The affected area in Germany, measured using minimal convex polygons, is much larger than the respective areas in the Czech Republic and in Belgium. All cases in the Czech Republic and in Belgium clustered in one single defined area, suggesting point‐source introductions, whereas in Germany four distinct spatial clusters were observed, which indicates that multiple incursions had occurred along the border with Poland. While the overall course of the disease was comparable, when individual clusters were considered, the summarized data showed clear differences between the situation in Germany compared to that in the Czech Republic and Belgium. Germany experienced several independent introductions, caused by continuous infection pressure along the border to Poland, while the infection was only introduced on a single occasion each into the Czech Republic and Belgium. These differences may require appropriate adaptation of control measures, in particular concerning fencing along the border.

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African swine fever virus – variants on the rise

Forth

Calvelage

Fischer

et al. 2022

Preprint

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African swine fever virus (ASFV), a large and complex DNA-virus circulating between soft ticks and indigenous suids in sub-Saharan Africa, has made its way into swine populations from Europe to Asia. This virus, causing a severe haemorrhagic disease (African swine fever) with very high lethality rates in wild boar and domestic pigs, has demonstrated a remarkably high genetic stability for over 10 years. Consequently, analyses into virus evolution and molecular epidemiology often struggled to provide the genetic basis to trace outbreaks while few resources have been dedicated to genomic surveillance on whole-genome level. During its recent incursion into Germany in 2020, ASFV has unexpectedly diverged into five clearly distinguishable linages with at least ten different variants characterized by high-impact mutations never identified before. Noticeably, all new variants share a frameshift mutation in the 3' end of the DNA polymerase PolX gene O174L, suggesting a causative role as possible mutator gene. Although epidemiological modelling supported the influence of increased mutation rates, it remains unknown how fast virus evolution might progress under these circumstances. Moreover, a tailored Sanger sequencing approach allowed us, for the first time, to trace variants with genomic epidemiology to regional clusters. In conclusion, our findings suggest that this new factor has the potential to dramatically influence the course of the ASFV pandemic with unknown outcome. Therefore, our work highlights the importance of genomic surveillance of ASFV on whole-genome level, the need for high-quality sequences and calls for a closer monitoring of future phenotypic changes of ASFV.

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Joining the club: First detection of African swine fever in wild boar in Germany

Cited by 26 publications

References 17 publications

Epidemiological analyses of African swine fever in the European Union

Epidemiological analyses of African swine fever in the European Union

African swine fever: Why the situation in Germany is not comparable to that in the Czech Republic or Belgium

African swine fever virus – variants on the rise

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