July 19, 2018

 

Measures to prevent spread of ASF assessed

 

 

Wild boars are known to play an important role in the spread of African swine fever (ASF), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has identified strategies for managing these animals at different stages of an epidemic of the disease: what should be done before, during and after.

 

In a scientific opinion published last week, EFSA experts investigated the density of the wild boar population in Europe, and assessed measures to reduce it and keep infected wild boars away from uninfected ones. They also identified ways to detect the disease early.

 

Measures to reduce the risks of outbreaks include intensive hunting and not feeding wild boars. When an epidemic is ongoing, activities that may increase the movement of wild boars should be avoided, including intensive drive hunts, EFSA stated.

 

Experts, however, could not establish a threshold for wild boar density below which the virus would not take hold. It was observed that ASF spread in areas where the presence of wild boars is low.

 

Regular dialogue

 

The opinion stressed the importance of a regular dialogue among involved stakeholders to increase preparedness.

 

"Experts agreed that building awareness in society and providing incentives to people who report on wild boar carcasses are essential to fight the disease", said Christian Gortazar, chair of EFSA's working group on ASF.

 

He said passive surveillance - reporting of dead wild boar - remains the most effective way to detect new ASF cases at an early stage in previously disease-free areas.

 

The opinion also stresses the need to harmonise information gathering on wild boars across the EU to make data more comparable.

 

To fill data gaps, EFSA is funding a project - ENETWILD - aimed at collecting and harmonising data on the geographical distribution and abundance of wild boars across Europe.

 

Read the scientific opinion here.