Key risk factors and impact of African swine fever spreading on pig production in Serbia

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a viral disease of domestic pigs and wild boars and currently represents a major threat to the swine industry worldwide. Disease control is impaired by a lack of an effective vaccine and currently, it is dependent on biosecurity measures in pig production, rapid diagnosis, and stamping out of infected herds. Consequently, this swine disease has considerable social-economic significance on national or even regional level. In 2019 for the first time ASF was detected in the domestic swine population (backyards) in the central region of Serbia. From then on, there have been continuous outbreaks of new cases in the population of domestic and wild boars. Considering domestic pig population, in the majority of cases, ASF was detected in small holdings and backyards. The biosecurity measures are not officially required by veterinary regulation and are only given in a form of recommendations. On the other hand, it is not always possible to implement biosecurity measures that are recognized today as essential for sustainable pig production in the old type of industrial pig facilities. Nowadays, in 2021, it became obvious that the domestic pig cycle, human activities involving pigs, or pig-derived meat products are the dominant driver of virus transmission. Additionally, human activities are frequently a risky connection between domestic pigs and wild boars both directly or indirectly. Traditional, culture-related aspects and facts that politicians failed to recognise ASF as a serious issue that causes great economical losses were found to be very important obstacles in disease control.

African Swine Fever: A Biosecurity Challenge for Domestic Pig Production in Serbia

“…Disease outbreaks were registered in the next 2 months in the backyard domestic pig population. According to the epidemiological investigation, almost all cases were fi rstly detected as health disorders in sows (anorexia, abortion, death) (Polaček et al, 2021). However, the last outbreak in 2019 was confi rmed in another region, at the border with Romania in the south-east area of Vojvodina province (Petrović et al, 2021).…”

“…Th e distance between the fi rst and the last outbreaks was estimated to about 185-190 km. According to the results of epidemiological investigations, it was concluded that these outbreaks represent most probably two separate introductions from a neighbouring country -Romania (Polaček et al, 2021). In Europe, the long distance ASF transmission has been associated with the disposal of infected waste, meat or meat products in wild boar habitat, for example, in the Czech Republic, where the closest ASF cases were about 400-500 km away (Jurado et al, 2018;Bellini et al, 2021).…”

“…Subsequently, the Romanian domestic pig sector was aff ected with more than 3800 outbreaks from 2017 to 2020 (Ardelean et al, 2021). According to the results of epidemiological investigation in Serbia, it has been suggested that ASFV was most probably brought in with the diff erent meat products from the aff ected neighbouring country -Romania (Milićević et al, 2019;Nešković et al, 2021;Polaček et al, 2021).…”

“…At the beginning of 2020, new cases of ASF outbreaks were registered in the south-eastern region of Serbia in a wild boar population. From then on, there have been continuous outbreaks in domestic pigs and wild boars along the country border with Romania and Bulgaria (Petrović et al, 2021;Polaček et al, 2021). At the beginning of 2021, a disease outbreak was confi rmed in domestic pigs but for the fi rst time on a large commercial pig farm, near the border with Romania.…”

Salmonella in Wild Boars (Sus Scrofa): Characterization and Epidemiology

“…The study was carried out in the period between October and December, during two consecutive hunting seasons (2013-2014) as part of a large project on pathogens occurring in wild boars. Research on the prevalence of Salmonella was supposed to continue but had to be stopped due to the outbreak of African swine fever [10]. Animals originated from twelve different hunting estates in the region of South-West Vojvodina (10 large fenced and two open areas).…”