The African swine fever virus has appeared in Hungary

According to hvg.hu, on Tuesday, the laboratory of the National Food Chain Safety Office (NFCSO) detected the pathogen of the African swine fever (ASFV) in a wild boar that was shot out near the periphery of Tarcal.

Upon the instruction of the national chief veterinarian, animal healthcare specialists promptly began executing the necessary measures. The main goal is to prevent the virus from spreading to domesticated swine, but to accomplish this, it is necessary for animal keepers to comply to the regulations of disease control strictly – can be read in the statement of authorities.

The National Centre for Disease Control traced out the septic and acutely inspected areas. You can find detailed information about the affected areas and related regulations here (in Hungarian).

The African swine fever virus has previously appeared in Heves county in April and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county in May. Because of this, it was ordered to cull the wild boar population. During this process, the hunters shot out a seemingly healthy specimen, in which the NFSCO later identified the virus. An epidemiological investigation is currently taking place, but the relatively long distance (over 70 kilometres) and the available epidemiological data suggests that the current appearance cannot be connected to previous cases.

The NFCSO emphasises that

the ASFV is not dangerous to humans.

Its significance comes from the economic damage, that is caused by the slaughtering of the infected livestock and the commercial restriction that take place.

The spreading of the disease not only occurs naturally, but it can spread with illegally transported animals, infected equipment and humans. Furthermore, food containing the infected meat also poses a risk. The authorities invite animal keepers to law-abiding and responsible behaviour to prevent the pathogen from affecting domestic pigs.

They also highlighted that it is prohibited to feed swine with food waste derived from animals. It is also important to contact animal healthcare service within twenty-four hours if you notice any of the following symptoms in the swine livestock: sudden fever, sudden decease or haemorrhagic symptoms.

The virus can stay virulent for several weeks in raw pork and other raw or semi-finished meat products and can stay contagious for several years in frozen meat. Therefore, it is highly advised for hikers to only discard litter or their leftovers at the designated garbage cans.

As we wrote before, veterinary officers visited farms in Hungary in August to promote preventive measures against the African swine flue, read more HERE.

Also, we wrote on July, efforts to re-open Hungary’s export markets shrunk because of African swine fever (ASP) showed good progress, read more HERE.

translated by Péter Licskay

Source: Hvg.hu