EC is urging member states to collaborate on ASF
A new wave of African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks in countries already hit by the disease and the constant danger for the rest of the EU member states is forcing the European Commission (EC) to ask for collaboration between countries in the bloc.
After the recent meeting of the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council, EC as reassured member states that it would remain active in fighting ASF but stresses the importance of collaboration in order to contain the disease.
Member states are urged to renew efforts at all levels with the aim of ensuring compliance with existing rules on the protection of animals during transport, in particular over long distances and under hot weather conditions. Several ministers emphasized the need for a uniform application of animal transport rules within the EU and others even called for new, stricter measures, noted Food Ingredients First magazine.
Also, the European Livestock and Meat Traders Union (UECBV) shows support for the EC recommendation. "The success of the EU control system, including EU regionalization, can be seen in the eradication of ASF in the Czech Republic, or in the containment of the disease in the wild boar population in Belgium and Hungary, or even in Estonia since 2018. Furthermore, no cases of ASF were linked to trade in pork, be it intra-EU or for exports.
A joint effort from all EU authorities and stakeholders based on the accomplishments of the European system in containing ASF and delivering safe pork and on the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) standards for safe international trade is needed to convince our trade partners of the fact that EU pork is safe,” says UECBV.
The Czech Republic was the first European country to be declared ASF-free while Belgium has done notable efforts to keep the disease out of its domestic pig population.
Jean-François Heymans, Chief Veterinary Officer at Belgium's Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) declared: "Belgium has initiated a closer collaboration with the neighboring countries such as daily communication about the situation and technical meetings between wildlife experts of different countries. In addition to the broad, national collaboration, we believe that total transparency towards our neighboring countries, other EU Member States and Non-EU Members States is essential for the management of ASF in Belgium, Europe and worldwide and to ensure the necessary trust between Belgium and its commercial and other partners. Therefore, the FASFC continues to inform about the situation and the measures taken trough different platforms of communication".
On 13 September 2018, the African swine fever (ASF) virus was confirmed in two wild boars in the Belgian municipality Etalle. Since then, Belgium has initiated a series of measures meant to prevent the spread of the virus in its national pig inventory.
Among those: registration of the pigs and the farms in a central national database: SANITEL. Belgium currently has 6.2 million pigs distributed over approx. 7,200 pig farms. 94% of the herd is located in the Flanders Region. FASFC officers check the registration, infrastructure and hygiene obligations, as mentioned by the Intouch-Intelligence website.
A complete prevention plan including physical barriers, prohibition of assemblies of pigs, access restrictions and application of strict biosecurity on farms, prohibition of feeding pigs with swill or kitchen waste (even occasionally), cleaning and disinfection of vehicles that transport pigs. Mandatory examinations from the vet are required so every pig farmer must conduct a free vet examination every 3 months. Every call from a pig farm must be responded by veterinarians in 24 hours. In the first 8 months, blood samples were taken from 4,081 pigs on 938 farms.
Every pig introduced into a farm must undergo a 4-week quarantine period before being allowed to mingle with the herd. Besides that, Belgian authorities have collaborated closely with officials from France, Germany and the Netherlands, coming up with a common set of measures in order to prevent the disease from spreading.
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