Biosecurity Key to Maintaining Effective Foreign Animal Disease Prevention

Oct 28, 2024

The Swine Health Information Center is advising North American Swine producers to maintain their focus on biosecurity as the global African Swine Fever situation continues to evolve.As part of its October eNewsletter the Swine Health Information Center has released its monthly domestic and global swine disease monitoring reports.

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says, month over month, African Swine Fever continues to be a significant challenge in most parts of the globe.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

We are seeing ASF cause significant pig losses in Italy.Some areas are seeing some viruses and some genotypes being free.Sweden is one of those areas that is considered now free of ASF a year after it was detected in wild boar however other places such as the Philippines are seeing the need to step up their methods of control, which also includes the deployment of vaccines.

Russia is reporting for the first time the detection of an African Swine Fever recombinant of the genotype-1 and the genotype-2 virus.It is 99 percent similar to one of the viruses that was reported in China in 2021 and then again in Vietnam in 2023 and there is concern with how much ASF is changing.If it's recombining, will the same vaccines that we're using now still be effective or not?

So, it does impact how we assess different protocols for this virus but also important to look at the virus itself and say is this going to be more damaging to the industry or less and that's something that bears monitoring.The UK continues to ban personal imports of pork at borders, trying to prevent ASF from coming in and France is looking at their situation and trying to create a wild boar free zone to help reduce the risk of infection into their commercial swine population.

As ASF the situation evolves globally, Dr. Becton advises North American swine producers to control what they can control by continuing to follow biosecurity protocols, restricting access to swine barns and participating in various preventive programs that are available.

Source : Farmscape.ca

Video: ASF Spread and Control Insights - Dr. Carles Vilalta

In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, Dr. Carles Vilalta, epidemiologist at IRTA CReSA in Spain, explains the current African swine fever situation, including origin, transmission, and control strategies. He highlights the role of human activity, wild boar dynamics, and biosecurity measures to protect commercial farms. Learn how surveillance and field actions shape disease containment. Listen now on all major platforms!

"ASF demonstrates slow animal to animal transmission despite high infectivity, making it a clumsy disease that depends heavily on human mediated spread."

Meet the guest: Dr. Carles Vilalta / carlesvilalta is an epidemiologist, swine veterinarian, and researcher at IRTA-CReSA in Spain. His work focuses on epidemiology, swine health, disease surveillance, and research support for government and industry programs. Learn more from Dr. Carles Vilalta on The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, available on all major platforms.