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Human beings are believed to have caused the recent spread of the disease in Belgium, where eight cases have been confirmed, as of September 25, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.
The virus reached China this summer and arrived for the first time in Western Europe in September in a separate simultaneous outbreak, leaving officials worried.
As of Friday, Belgium had slaughtered 4,000 domestic pigs in the Étalle region, according to the country's national federation of slaughterhouses, cutting plants and pork wholesalers. Thirteen countries have banned pork imports from Belgium: Taiwan, South Korea, Serbia, Singapore, China, Belarus, Australia, Japan, Philippines, Mexico, Uruguay, Malaysia and India.
"An outbreak of African swine fever is a very serious event," said Matthew Stone, deputy director general of the World Organization for Animal Health for international standards and science. "The authorities of the affected countries are under extraordinary pressure."
The disease is characterized by hemorrhagic lesions of the pig on the skin and internal organs. According to the World Organization for Animal Health, all cases can result in death within 10 days of infection.
The financial consequences of an epidemic are considerable. Once the virus has been detected in a pig farm, the entire population must be eliminated.
Cross-border propagation
Eastern Europe has witnessed several virus outbreaks during the summer, with Romania being the most affected.
The first case was reported in January near the Ukrainian border and Romania has reported more than 900 outbreaks since then, mainly among barnyard animals. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania reported more than 355,000 cases between them since 2014.
The virus first entered Eurasia in Georgia in 2007 via a wild boar imported from Africa, said Andriukaitis, who chaired a meeting with Belgian ministers on Sept. 17 to discuss treatment of cases discovered in Belgium.
"The first outbreak in Georgia in 2007 was a total disaster, completely destroying pork production and causing widespread contamination," he said. After Georgia, the virus spread to Russia, Moldova and Belarus. In 2014, he entered the European Union via Poland and the Baltic States.
At present, the virus has reached Belgium, with epidemics in progress in The Kiev region of Ukraine has killed 912 pigs. Nineteen new outbreaks were also recorded in Romania, mainly in backyard farms and national parks.
The virus shows no signs of slowing down.
Human spread
According to Linda Dixon, a genomic researcher on African swine fever at the Pirbright Institute in the UK, humans were the "most likely route of infection" for boars last week in Belgium.
As the infected pigs were found in a forest area, more than 1,000 kilometers from all infected territories, she suspects that people have eaten infected meat products and then left them in the forest, where the wild boars ate them.
Eating infected meat is safe, Dixon said.
In the rest of Europe, wild boar movements, the illegal trade in pork and pork and the movement of people and vehicles between countries have been the main factor of spread, according to Andriukaitis.
Climate change and "absolutely different weather conditions" have contributed to the spread of African swine fever, he said, explaining that the virus was very resistant to heat and cold.
Thousands of infected in China
China has also been hit hard.
Stone believes that the movements of live pigs or pork have been "determinant both for the initiation and spread" of the virus in China.
Dirk Pfeiffer, a full professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences at the City University in Hong Kong, believes the vast geographical spread is due to the "extensive network of live swine trade in China".
"Food waste is widely distributed to domestic pigs, who, if they are infected with the virus, will greatly facilitate the spread."
When there is "a large illegal trade in live pigs, pork or food waste intended for pig feed", it becomes "virtually impossible" to find the source of the virus, Pfeiffer added.
However, it is essential to investigate how the virus was introduced to prevent further spread.
China is in the process of establishing standard procedures, such as the ban on the movement of pigs and pork products from the provinces concerned to the unaffected provinces and slaughtering on farms in China. risk. "Forward and backward" tracing is also in progress to identify the source of the virus and other areas in which undetected infections could spread. Feeding pigs (food waste) was also banned, said Pfeiffer.
However, given the size of the country and the number of outbreaks, Pfeffer believes that it is necessary to have a larger number of qualified veterinarians familiar with the virus.
Given the number of countries now affected, preparedness programs, such as awareness campaigns warning people not to bring meat products from infected areas, are underway in most countries, said Dixon.
Schengen in difficulty
"Europe is very worried about its spread," said Dixon, pointing out that the large number of wild roaming wild boars was a major concern, helped by the Schengen area that allows Europeans to move between 26 countries without any control at the borders.
In the free movement area, seven countries reported outbreaks: Belgium, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Ways to prevent the boar from spreading the virus must include an understanding of the movement of the animal, Stone said.
In the summer of 2017, the Czech Republic managed a deadly virus outbreak among its wild boar population through early prevention methods such as targeted hunting, increased biosecurity, awareness campaigns and training of the population. local.
Other cases of African swine fever, such as an epidemic in the 1980s in Spain, have also been eliminated through a reduction in open-air hog farming in the south of the country. But current conditions make it more difficult to get infected with the virus.
"We are currently experiencing different situations because of the single market, the free movement of goods, the Schengen area and the different legal environments," said Andriukaitis.
Rest of Europe builds defense
The European Union has drawn up emergency plans to combat African swine fever, including hunting bans in the affected areas, movement controls, surveillance, and high biosecurity in all hog farms, the fight against the illegal trade in meat or pork products and the sensitization of farmers and the local population.
To prevent the spread of the virus in non-affected countries, Germany has issued a decree authorizing the hunting of wild boar populations throughout the year and repeated the tactics of intervention in the event of outbreak of African swine fever. Denmark has approved the establishment of a fence along its border with Germany to prevent wild boar movements between countries as a precautionary measure.
Andriukaitis has "doubts" about the use of a fence between countries as a prevention strategy, because it would not prevent the movement of people or vehicles, which can still transmit the virus.w
The next hope is a vaccine.
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