AFRICAN SWINE FEVER IN EUROPE

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a non-zoonotic disease that causes a hemorrhagic fever often lethal for domestic pigs or European wild boar, while it is asymptomatic in African wild suids. ASF is due to a double strand, enveloped, DNA virus, single member of the Asfarviridae family, that can also infect soft ticks of Ornithodoros spp., a non-compulsory competent vector. ASF, historically endemic in Africa, has been reintroduced on the European continent in 2007, in Georgia, then has spread to reach the European Union in 2014, China in 2018 and further Eastern Asia and Pacific islands. ASF spread in Eurasia is essentially "man-made", in relation to the environmental resistance of the ASF Virus. As no vaccines or treatments are currently available, disease control measures rely on high level of biosecurity at herd level to prevent ASF introduction.