The number of official registrations of African Swine Fever on Polish farms has exploded in a few days, rising all at once from 20 to 32.
While at the beginning of July the number was still 7, last month three gradual âlargeâ increases were recorded (from 7 to 12, and from 12 via 16 to 20). The authorities have now confirmed twelve new outbreaks, bringing the current total to 32.
All new outbreaks have been registered in the Polish zones where restrictive measures and a transport ban were already in place. The twelve new cases and clusters also mark other farms with increased risk and high virus pressure.
The Chief Veterinary Officer did not provide detailed information on all affected farms. Three of them are in a cluster in the Lubelskie province (in eastern Poland), five in another cluster also in the Lubelskie province. One outbreak was noted in the eastern province of Podkarpackie, one on a farm in the south of Warsaw, and one in the Lubuskie province in western Poland.
Most outbreaks occurred on small farms, with a few or at most a dozen pigs or piglets. Only âoutbreak number 26â concerned a professional breeding operation and was discovered on a farm holding 1,024 pigs (79 sows, 350 piglets, 290 weaned pigs, 304 fattening pigs, and 1 boar), located in Zabura. The farm is situated in an eastern Polish risk area where ASF had previously been detected both in wild boar and pig farms.
African Swine Fever is already present in one third of Polish territory. The increase in the number of outbreaks in summer is the six-year seasonal effect of accelerated ASF development during the summer months. The virus is also increasingly found in wild boarsâthe detected number of sick and dead animals has already exceeded last yearâs numbers. In total, 48 ASF outbreaks on pig farms were detected last year, along with 2,477 cases in wild boar.
This year there have been (so far) 32 outbreaks, but 2,915 cases in wild boar. The virus usually makes the most progress in summer. âWe do not know the exact reasons for these seasonal influences, whether it is because farmers remain careless and do not clean their tractors and agricultural machinery before returning to the farm, or whether it is contamination via flies or feed pollution,â says Aleksander Dargiewicz, president of the PolPig Breeders Association.
Although some countries, such as the Czech Republic or Belgium, were able to take decisive measures quickly and slow down or completely eliminate the virus, none of the corrective measures taken in Poland have proven to be exceptionally effective, noted the Polish swine farmer.