SGE ASF18 - 18th meeting of the Standing Group of Experts on African Swine Fever in Europe - WOAH

Due to the sanitary situation of the COVID-19, the eighteenth meeting of the standing group of experts on African Swine Fever (SGE ASF18), took place as a teleconference on the 23^rd of November 2021. Fourteen 14 SGE Member Countries from the European Region participated, as well as representatives of the Americas and Asia for a total of over 50 participants.

The participating member countries of the SGE-ASF for Europe briefly presented their national epidemiological situation regarding ASF, focusing on the changes since the last online meeting in June 2021.

Recommendations

The SGE ASF18 were shown a set of recommendations. Amongst these, it was highlighted that:

Based on science and OIE Standards, Recommendations published by the SGE since 2014 should be considered; helping all countries reach the objectives of this initiative the GFTADs ASF initiative.
Outdoor pig farms may carry a substantial risk of introducing and spreading ASF in areas affected by ASF.
Biosecurity is key to prevent and control ASF spread and should be enhanced, because of specific ASF risks for outdoor farms.
Pig farmers should set up a system to regularly implement independent and objective on-farm biosecurity assessments using comprehensive standard protocols; competent authorities should then perform controls and register or approve outdoor pig farms based on their biosecurity risk. The aim of such system should be to further reduce the risk of ASF introduction and spread related to outdoor pig farms.
Farmers should be encouraged, where this is not already the case, to implement single solid or double fences on all outdoor pig farms, at least in areas where ASF is present in wild boar and in domestic pigs, to reduce the risk of ASF introduction.

Recommendations

Next meeting

The nineteenth meeting (SGE ASF19) of the Standing Group of Experts on African Swine Fever in Europe under the GF-TADs umbrella should be held physically, in the first semester of 2022. It will be held in hybrid form to allow participants who are able to travel to attend the event and for those subject to restriction they will be following the meeting online. The place, to be confirmed, is Brussels.