Biosecurity crucial as African Swine Fever tracks across Europe
Pigs become sick and die within a few days after ASF infection. Picture: NHAC NGUYEN/AFP via Getty Images
With new African Swine Fever cases in Germany and Italy threatening the pork industries of the Netherlands and France, the Department of Agriculture here has warned travellers not to risk bringing pork or pork products into Ireland.
The first case of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the German state of Lower Saxony has particularly heightened fears in the pig industry. Confirmed on July 2, more than 300km from any previous case, human spread is the suspected cause.
Lower Saxony is the No 1 pig-producing area in Germany. The disease was detected in a farm with 280 sows and 1,500 piglets at Emsbüren, about 20km from the Dutch border.
They were culled, and a restriction zone was established with a radius of 10km, for surveillance of 296 pig farms producing 195,000 pigs.
Meanwhile, French health authorities continue to intensify controls on wild and domestic pigs, and have re-assessed biosecurity on farms, after the devastating pig disease was found on a German farm less than 7km from the French border.
Confirmed on May 25, it was the first case of ASF in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, occurring more than 500km away from previously detected German outbreaks (therefore, human transmission is the suspected cause).
It was an organic pig finishing farm at Emmendingen with 35 outdoor pigs behind double fencing. Sixteen had died from the disease before it was confirmed, and State vets culled the remaining pigs. With fruit and vegetable production also, the farm had more than 140 employees from other European countries.
There are two commercial farms inside the 3km exclusion zone, and almost 60 in the wider 10km surveillance zone.
Pigs become sick and die within a few days after ASF infection. The disease is currently present in Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Belgium, Czechia and Greece have successfully eradicated it and are now ASF-free.
It is safe for humans to eat pork and pork products (such as sausages) derived from infected animals, but these foods remain infectious for pigs (and wild boar) for a long time.
Export bans due to ASF outbreaks could be the last straw for many EU pig farmers, already under severe pressure due to a combination of rising costs, reduced demand from China, and the effects of ASF since it was first found in wild boars in eastern Germany in September 2020.
Wild boars coming from Poland were blamed for spreading ASF to Germany, the EU's biggest pork producer. China and other importers banned pork from Germany.
How damaging the loss of Asian export markets can be for the EU pig industry is illustrated in a report that warns of France losing export sales between €157m and €364m per year.
France is also threatened by ASF spread from Italy, where it was detected in more than 150 wild boars, and in domestic pigs on a farm near Rome.
Pork banned from export markets must be mostly redirected back to the European market, driving pig prices below current levels which are already loss-making for most farmers.
The World Organisation for Animal Health does not force a country affected by ASF to stop exports. But this principle, accepted by all World Trade Organisation members, is not respected by major pork importers such as China, Japan, and South Korea, which unilaterally stopped their purchases from infected countries.
In France, it is estimated that an ASF outbreak would cut pig prices by around 14% (by 21c to 23c per kg). Italy, the seventh-largest pork producer in the EU, has already suffered the consequences of importing countries banning their pork last January.
Ironically, in the UK, it is feared Brexit has increased the likelihood of ASF spreading from the Continent. Both pig farmers and the UK's Food Standards Agency have warned that border systems in place are "not sufficient replacement for the introduction of robust import controls".
However, the British government said there are strict biosecurity controls on the highest risk imports of animals, animal by-products, plants and plant products from the EU, and noted that EU countries affected by ASF cannot export pork or pork products from affected regions, unless in very specific circumstances.
Border controls are a touchy subject for the British food industry, which faced additional EU export checks, documentation requirements, disruption, delays, and costs since Day 1 of Brexit, January 1, 2020. But border checks on imports from the EU are not due to change until the end of 2023, the date the British government targets for a new digitised control regime.
UK pig farmers fear the movement of contaminated meat products traded illegally from EU areas where ASF outbreaks have occurred. They were relieved when ASF, foot-and-mouth, and swine vesicular disease were recently ruled out on a Norfolk farm which had been under restriction due to disease symptoms.
Nearly 250 domestic pig farms across Europe were infected with ASF this year. Worst affected were Romania, with 171 farms, and Serbia with 49. Poland and Russia also had many cases. Containing Germany’s large wild boar population, which wanders over large distances, has been difficult.
Up to April, there were 2,972 ASF outbreaks in wild boar in Europe, according to the EU.
The UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency has advised pig keepers to ensure pigs are not fed catering waste, kitchen scraps or pork products, and that visitors or seasonal workers had no recent contact with pigs in infected regions.
They should watch for symptoms in their pigs; the main clinical signs are fever, loss of appetite, lack of energy, and sudden death. Other signs can include vomiting, diarrhoea, red or dark skin particularly on the ears and snout, discharges from the eyes and nose, laboured breathing and coughing, abortion in sows, and unsteady gait.
Across the Atlantic, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has launched a new outreach and awareness campaign to keep ASF out. It has been confirmed in countries as close as the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
If the disease arrives in the US, one of the world’s largest pork producers and the second-largest exporter, the estimated cost is nearly €50bn, over 10 years.
