Spain is looking for tighter biosecurity measures in front of ASF menace
The fast way that African swine fever is spreading through Europe and China is raising concerns about the resilience of Spanish pork industry in front of the disease.
The presence of the virus in wild boar population in Belgium has put Spain authorities in a state of alert and stricter biosecurity measures are being discussed at this time. Besides the control of pork imports in the country, including wild boar venison products, reducing the wild boar populations in the Iberian Peninsula is one of the measures presented during the discussions.
Applying measures aimed at reducing its population in the Peninsula; prohibiting the importation of wild boar from other countries; avoid bringing trophies from the hunting parties that took place in another country are some of the recommendations presented to the hunters in Spain.
"We must lower the population ratio because otherwise, we will have the plague African swine in four days", declared Angel Lopez, president of the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation, quoted by Porcino Info magazine.
The human factor is also a weak link in preventing the spreading of ASF virus, as humans can carry the disease in their clothes, hair or in some food products made from pork, signals Miguel Angel Higuera, president of the Association of Pig Producers in Spain (Anprogapor).
In his opinion, the African Swine Fever virus could also enter Spain through transporters or tourists arriving from affected countries and bringing infected meat products. "These products, if ingested by wild boar or pigs in our territory, could contract and spread the virus", mentioned Higuera.
At this time, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic have reported cases of ASF virus in pig farms inside EU borders, while the disease is also present in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and China.
Belgium is the latest state added to this map, with local authorities reporting this month the discovery of nine wild boars infected with the virus.
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