Has the Spread of African Swine Fever in the European Union Been Impacted by COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

African Swine Fever (ASF) is a contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs, listed as notifiable by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). It causes substantial economic losses to pig farming in the affected countries, with consequent enormous damage to livestock production due to mortality of the animals, and to the restrictions on national and international trade in pigs and derivative products that the presence of the infection implies. To prevent or reduce the risk of ASF introduction, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the OIE recommend preventive and control measures, such as the ban of live swine and their products traded from ASF-affected to ASF-free countries or zones. The current spread of ASF into Europe poses a serious risk to the industrialized and small-scale pig sector, as demonstrated by observed cases in different EU areas. In this paper the authors discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ASF, and the indirect effects including the impact on animal health and disease management. They suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected animal disease surveillance control. ASF requires rapid responses and continuous monitoring to identify outbreaks and prevent their spread, and both aspects may have been greatly reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.