Spain wants to increase surveillance after Belgian ASF case confirmed
The announcement of the first ASF case discovered in Belgium is worrying Spanish officials and representatives of the pork sector, informs CdeComunicacion website.
Despite the fact that between Etalle, Belgium and the Spanish border the distance is about 857 kilometres, supplementary surveillance measures are requested. Last week, the Spanish government decided to ban all the wild boar imports to the country as a cautionary measure after ASF outbreaks are now reported in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria and the disease is also creating a real crisis in China's pig industry.
"Given this situation, the Spanish sector should be alert given the proximity of this outbreak since it is already less distance than the one that has travelled from the point of origin of the first cases. Therefore, all surveillance measures must be increased, as well as those of cleaning, biosecurity or disinfection of vehicles", informs the magazine.
In fact, distance is not an obstacle for the spreading of the disease as the Chinese ASF crisis revealed. China has reported more than 15 outbreaks in less than 40 days, with a distance of more than 1000 kilometres between the provinces affected.
"It's critical that this region be ready for the very real possibility that swine fever could jump the border in other countries", said Wantanee Kalpravidh, regional manager of the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) in Asia, before a reunion that analyzed the situation in China.
To spread from Belgium to Spain, ASF virus must cross France first, but there is also a high possibility that the disease could spread to food or be carried by humans. Europe has outbreaks of ASF since 2014, although in recent months they have been increasing. Thus, throughout 2018, 4,800 cases have been detected, of which 3,800 correspond to wild boars and the rest in pig farms.
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