INTERVIEW ▶▶▶ Professor José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno
Working together as the answer to eradicate ASFv
The words “viruses” and “cooperation” both form key concepts through the life and career of professor José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno. The two concepts come together in the latest project he has embarked on: being the coordinator of a European consortium to once and for all eradicate African Swine Fever.
BY VINCENT TER BEEK, EDITOR, PIG PROGRESS H
e fought against African horse sickness and worked on Classical Swine Fever as well. Yet if one animal disease has been central to the professional life of Prof José Ma- nuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno, it is African Swine Fever (ASF).
Working for the Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research (INIA), he took a leading role when Spain spared no effort to eradicate the virus from the Iberian peninsula in the 1980s, which led to its eventual eradication in 1995. More recently he was involved in the first steps of the development of an oral ASF vaccine for wild boar. In 2020 the next chapter was added to his quest to beat the virus once and for all when he started coordinating the Vacdiva project.
Viruses central in life Viruses literally shaped Prof Sánchez-Vizcaíno’s life and career. Growing up in the southern Spanish city of Murcia, he was struck by polio at the age of two, which caused him to be dependent on crutches and a wheelchair. He says, “I always heard, ‘José just missed getting the vaccine, such a terrible situation!’ Meanwhile I wanted to know what it was all about – vaccines. I was thinking they must be some kind of magic. At the age of seven or eight, somebody gave me a book about Louis Pasteur. I read the book, and for the first time I understood what a vaccine was. So I decided to be Louis Pasteur.” ASF was introduced to Portugal in 1957 and again in 1960. It also emerged in neighbouring Spain in the early 1960s, infecting wild boar populations and domestic production both indoor and out- door. ASF-infected ticks were also found in Spain and Portugal.
Prof Sánchez-Vizcaíno’s involvement started in the late 1970s, when the dictatorship of general Franco had just ended. Between 1978 and 2002 his role gradually grew in importance; he began as a researcher and eventually became chief of INIA’s Animal Health Research Center.
Why did Spain step up the efforts to eradicate the disease? “At that time we were ready to enter the European Communities [at that time the name EU was not used yet, VtB]. If we had done so while having ASF virus around, it would have meant that every- body outside of Spain could start sending meat products over here, like salamis etc., but we could not have exported ours. So that was a very big problem.”
How was the atmosphere for tackling the virus? “After 1978, 1980, I saw a country that was extremely motivated to face the future, extremely motivated to cooperate with other countries in the world. It made the country more communicative and more proud of being Spanish and more evident that we have to change the country. In 1990 the final ASF eradication pro- gramme started in collaboration with the EU. Never in my life have I seen so much collaboration than during the control and eradication as I did during that time. Farmers, industry people, rich people, poor people, veterinarians, laboratories, all the regions. Everybody worked together to rid the country of ASF.”
Which of the ASF reservoirs was the hardest to eradicate: ticks, domestic pigs or wild boar? “The most difficult were the ticks. After all, you can see wild boar. Three factors were important with monitoring the wild boar:
▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 37, No. 2, 2021 27
PHOTO: SUAT-VISAVET
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