African Swine Fever (ASF) is very common (endemic) in most countries south of the Sahara.
African Swine Fever in Europe
In Europe ASF is endemic in semi-wild pigs and wild boars in Sardinia since 1978.
Since 2007 the disease has been spreading in the Caucasus region, having emerged first in Georgia, where it has become epizootic (an epidemic amongst animals, in this case amongst domesticated pigs and wild boars).
In recent years, the virus has spread to Eastern Europe (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova). Numerous infections have been detected, both in wild boar and in pigs. The classical control measures have been applied, but until now they have not been able to stop the advance of the virus to the west in the wild boar population. Spread is attributable to direct contact between animals, but also to human actions causing indirect infection.
African Swine Fever in Belgium
The (currently) only epidemic of ASF in Belgium dates from 1985, when the virus was brought into Western Flanders by contaminated pork from Spain. Twelve farms were infected, 185 blocked and more than 30,000 pigs had to be destroyed.
In mid-September 2018, the ASF virus was detected in our country in two dead wild boars in the province of Luxembourg. On September 26th, a total of 15 wild boars were found positive for African Swine Fever in the region of Etalle in the Province of Luxemburg on the 50 tested. An infected zone has been delimited around the detected cases by FASFC and the Walloon Region (more info on the FASFC website in Dutch or French).