Will Bulgaria fall into the ASF trap again?

Published Sep 2, 2024

Tridge summary

Bulgaria has seen a low but significant number of African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks in domestic pigs, alongside a higher incidence in wild pigs, leading to a medium to high risk of virus transmission to domestic pigs, according to the Center for Food Chain Risk Assessment. In the first half of 2024, 451 ASF cases were confirmed in wild pigs across 21 districts. The largest number of wild boars is found in the Sofia Region, Smolyan, Blagoevgrad, Haskovo, Plovdiv, and Kardjali districts, which also have a high number of ASF cases. The national plan to control ASF includes shooting wild pigs to reduce density, a measure last implemented in 2021. The decision to reduce the wild boar population again will depend on the spread of the disease. The European Animal Disease and Risk Assessment Network (EADN) reports that ASF continues to spread in the wild boar population across Europe, with Romania reporting the highest number of cases. To prevent the virus from spreading to domestic pigs, farms should maintain biosecurity and monitor the wild population.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Bulgaria maintains a low number of confirmed outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) in domestic pigs, but a relatively high percentage of positive cases in the wild population, therefore the risk of virus penetration among domestic pigs is defined as medium to high, says the a report by the Center for Food Chain Risk Assessment (FCARC). For the first six months of 2024, 451 cases of ASF have been confirmed in wild pigs in 21 districts. Only in the districts of Sofia-city, Sofia region, Pernik, Pleven, Vratsa, Montana and Vidin, no such infection has been reported. The most recent outbreaks in domestic pigs were in 2023, on backyard farms, when 11 pigs on a farm were affected and a pig carcass was found dumped outside a residential area. But can the virus from the wild population be transferred to the domestic one? The data on the wild boar population in our country in 2023 show that the largest number of wild boars are in the following regions: Sofia Region (4,697), followed by ...

Source: Agri