Resumen de Exotic diseases: Updated assessment on African swine fever in eastern Europe

• CONTROLS implemented in Poland, Estonia and Latvia to control the spread of African swine fever (ASF) over the past winter appear to be working, and the disease has not spread into new areas, according to a recently updated outbreak assessment by the International Disease Monitoring (IDM) team at Defra/APHA. The team reports that, as a result of this finding and previous intensive surveillance, surveillance for ASF is being reduced, particularly in Poland.

  The IDM team continues to monitor the disease situation in eastern EU member states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) as more cases of ASF in wild boar have been reported. However, in its updated assessment, published on May 22, the team notes that there has been only one outbreak on a backyard farm in Poland (in January 2015) since September 2014. Also, it reports, there have been no outbreaks on any commercial premises since August 5, 2014, when there was a case in a small commercial premises in Latvia. Spread among wild boar has been limited, mainly within the zones in which ASF is established, although there have been ‘some small additions to the Part II control zone’....