Warning: secure farms against ASF

Biosecurity has never been more important on pig farms, warned Ciarán Carroll, Teagasc Pig Development Department chief, last week, following the first confirmed case of African swine fever on a commercial pig farm in Europe.

ASF has arrived in a farm in Rupinskai Village, Ignalina District, Lithuania, which has 19,411 pigs (including 1,396 sows). There is also a confirmed outbreak on a small five-pig farm in Poland, near the border with Belarus.

The disease was confirmed on July 24 in the huge, Danish-owned farm in Lithuania. All pigs on the farm have been killed, as a control measure, and feedstuffs and manure will be treated and destroyed.