September 2018
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HEAL ▶▶▶TH
African Swine Fever in Belgium – a look back
African Swine Fever took Belgium by surprise in September 2018, but luckily it occurred in wild boar, in a part of the country where not many domestic pigs were kept. The country has hopes that by autumn 2020, the status “free from ASF” can be obtained again.
BY VINCENT TER BEEK, EDITOR PIG PROGRESS O 200 150 100 50
n 11 August 2019, a young female wild boar was shot in the forests, about 2.5km southwest of Saint-Léger, Luxembourg province, Belgium. The animal must have been between six months and
one year old, and the hunters reported that it appeared healthy. When the wild boar’s spleen was sampled and ana- lysed at the laboratory of the University of Liège, however, she turned out to be positive for African Swine Fever virus (ASFv). The case, found 15km as the crow flies from the tripoint be- tween France, Belgium and the country Luxembourg, is
Figure 1 - ASF outbreaks in Belgium's wild boar population, Sept 2018-July 2020. 250
worth a bit of attention. Not only was it the 827th case of ASF
that was found in Belgium’s wild boar population but, as far as it is known, it was the last time the virus was discovered in a “fresh” carcass in Belgium. Fast forward to June 2020, when the count is at 833 victims in Belgium’s wild boar population. Since the described case in August 2019, a further six dead wild boar have tested positive for ASF, the last one on 4 March 2020 (see Figure 1). Each of those, however, concerned an emaciated carcass consisting of dry bones, that is, remains of animals that had died months before. Hence, it can be demonstrated that ASF was still around in wild boar in southern Belgium in August 2019 – but it looks unlikely it was there for much longer. That estimate explains the position taken by the Belgian Fed- eral Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC), which has had a pivotal role in fighting ASF in Belgium. In corre- spondence with Pig Progress, the FASFC’s chief veterinary of- ficer Jean-François Heymans said, “The cases in recent months were all old bones, which allows us to estimate the last viral circulation to September 2019. Unless the situation changes, we will therefore propose to the European Commis- sion and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to re- gain our free status one year after this last viral circulation, that is, from October 2020.”
0 Source: Pig Progress on the basis of OIE data.
The onset of ASF in Belgium Belgium’s ASF problems started on 9 September 2018, when three dead wild boar were found near the village Étalle, in the country’s southernmost province, Luxembourg (see Figure 2). When the animals proved positive for ASF, a wave of shock went through Western Europe’s pig industry. At that time the nearest known cases of ASF occurred near Zlín in the Czech Republic, about 1,000km away. Now it was found in a zone that was relatively close to important pig countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands – not to mention Bel- gium itself. Fortunately for Belgium, the outbreaks occurred in a part of the country that is not exactly known for pig production. Bel- gium’s major pig concentration can be found in a wide circle around the city of Roeselare, which is in the northwest of the country, 230km away from the first outbreaks. The wider sur- veillance zone, identified around the outbreak location, contained only 4,000 domestic pigs and these were all culled
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