GF-TADs - SGE ASF19

SGE ASF19 - 19th meeting of the Standing Group of Experts on African Swine Fever in Europe

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The 19th meeting of the GF-TADs Standing Group of Experts on African Swine Fever was held as a teleconference on the 23rd of February 2022, earlier than initially planned to address the newly detected outbreaks in January 2022 in Italy and North Macedonia.

Fifteen members of the SGE ASF for Europe attended the meeting with Italy and North Macedonia as new members, along with observer countries, representatives from the Americas and Asia, the European Commission, FAO, OIE and EFSA.

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 November 2021. In addition, representatives from Italy and North Macedonia shared detailed information on the newly detected outbreaks in their countries.

Recommendations

The SGE ASF19 discussed a set of proposed recommendations; main points include: 

  • Italy and North Macedonia become members of the SGE ASF 
  • All countries should improve their preparedness and capabilities for early detection, control, and eradication of African swine fever by building the capacity of the veterinary service  
  • All countries should further increase cross border cooperation, particularly on the measures to manage transboundary wild boar populations in the framework of ASF prevention, control and eradication. 
  • Awareness campaigns should be organized frequently to inform, educate and motivate all stakeholders to increase surveillance and improve reporting, enhance prevention practices and prevent further spread and introduction of ASF in new areas. 
  • All countries should promote coherent management and appropriate reduction, where relevant, of wild boar populations at the national level to prevent, better control and eradicate ASF.  
  • Even in the absence of ASF, long term planning is required to control wild boar populations and ensure optimal coordination of national resources involved.  

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Standing Group of Experts on African Swine Fever in Europe under the GF-TADs umbrella is planned to be held in Belgium in June 2022 (in a hybrid format) and will focus on ‘the development of ASF vaccines and vaccination strategies’.