According to a recent published Period Report by World Organization for Animal Heath, African swine fever, the deadly viral disease, is still spreading in Europe. In this report, an update of the African swine fever (ASF) situation, according to the information submitted through the World Animal Health Information System of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WAHIS) between 05 August and 18 August 2022 was described.
In August, Russia and Moldova had reported new cases of ASF infection, other EU countries such as Hungary, Italy, Latvia, North Macedonia and Romania also reported ASF infections. Statistics of the cases and losses are in the table below. Apparently Europe now is in the center of infection.
| Outbreaks | Cases | Losses* | |||
| Domestic pigs | Wild boars | Domestic pigs | Wild boars | Domestic pigs | |
| Africa | 1 | ||||
| Europe | 18 | 45 | 78 | 58 | 965 |
| Total | 19 | 45 | 78 | 58 | 965 |
Due to the lack of valid and efficient vaccine, ASF is still difficult to control. The best strategy is to eliminate this virus from the herd and break the chain of infection. Generally, to eliminate the virus, African swine fever virus real-time PCR test kit is recommended for herd level inspection. Samples including swine, environment, water, feed, etc shall be collected and tested. Strict biosecurity measurements shall also be performed to ensure all is ASF free and clean. After the first step cleaning, then routine testing of pigs shall also be carried out. For example, routine testing of African swine fever virus antigen and ASFV Ag Rapid Test Kit and ASFV Ag ELISA Kit. All positive individuals shall be removed. Meanwhile, testing of African swine fever antibody shall also be performed, for example, using African Swine Fever Antibody Blocking ELISA kit to detect the positive and infected pigs and then elminate them from the herd as well.
More informantly, once a whole complete negative herd has been obtained, please always keeping in mind that it is never easy to maintain negative herd, thus all measurements shall be carried out strictly.
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