ASF

The EU African swine fever (ASF) regionalisation laid down in Commission Implementing Decision 2014/709/EU1 without prejudice to the provisions of Council Directive 2002/60/EC. The different parts of the Annex to Decision 2014/709/EU were defined considering the epidemiological situation of ASF, including whether it concerns infection in both pigs holdings and the feral pig population.

This article describes the discovery that deletion of a previously uncharacterized gene, I177L, from the highly virulent ASFV-G produces complete virus attenuation in swine. Animals inoculated intramuscularly with the virus lacking the I177L gene, ASFV-G-ΔI177L, remained clinically normal during the 28-day observational period. All ASFV-G-ΔI177L-infected animals had low viremia titers, showed no...

According to the information of the Main Veterinary Inspectorate in the Lubuskie Voivodeship, 8 new cases of ASF have been confirmed. The extent of the disease has shifted westward, currently, the virus is located about 40 km [about 25 mi] from the German border.

African swine fever virus is transmissible through animal consumption of contaminated feed. To determine virus survival during transoceanic shipping, we calculated the half-life of the virus in 9 feed ingredients exposed to 30-day shipment conditions. Half-lives ranged from 9.6 to 14.2 days, indicating that the feed matrix environment promotes virus stability.

The European Commission requested EFSA to estimate the risk of spread of African swine fever (ASF) and to identify potential risk factors (indicators) for the spread of ASF, given introduction in the south-eastern countries of Europe (region of concern, ROC), namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.