Slovakia confirmed its first case of African swine fever (ASF) by clinical lab tests on Wednesday (24 July) in a backyard swine herd in Strážne, Trebišov, Kosice.

Biosecurity measures were increased in and around the affected area, including the following:

• Movement control inside the country.
• Surveillance outside containment and/or protection zone.
• Surveillance within containment and/or protection zone.
• Official disposal of carcasses, by-products and waste.
• Stamping out.
• Vaccination permitted (if a vaccine exists).
• No treatment of affected animals.

This said, with China having suffered dramatic losses to its national pig herd due to the highly contagious virus, it is now taking every precaution to prevent the disease re-entering and potentially being introduced to new regions. The import of pigs and pork products from Slovakia into China is now temporarily banned to halt this spread.

A number of pork trade and movement bans are currently in place across the globe; only last week (1 August), Greece banned pork imports from Bulgaria.

The movement and trade of pigs and pork products from affected regions is a high risk for moving the virus into currently unaffected areas so temporary trade bans are one way of preventing the spread of the virus. This said, proper biosecurity on farm is critical to preventing the introduction of pathogens to your herd and investing in a strict biosecurity regime will be of great benefit to pigs and their productivity.