The vaccine against African swine fever directed by the Spanish Sánchez-Vizcaíno will be tested on wild boars in Hungary

The fate of millions of pigs in Europe could be decided this coming winter in a Hungarian forest. There, European Union researchers plan to test a vaccine against African swine fever (ASF) in wild boars. ASF is a viral disease that threatens wild and domestic pigs throughout Europe. Without vaccines or treatment for ASF, outbreaks typically kill infected pigs and often lead to culling to prevent the disease from spreading to other farms. In Hungarian forests, researchers intend to place baits mixed with an experimental ASF vaccine developed with EU funds. The goal is to immunize around 300 wild boars. "The biggest problem in Europe at the moment is infected wild boar," says José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno, professor of Animal Health at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, speaking to the magazine of the European Union Research Funding Programme. Horizon. “If we reduce the disease in wild boars, we probably won't need to vaccinate domestic pigs,” he maintains. ...