African swine fever case detected in northern Italy

A case of African swine fever was detected in a wild boar in northern Italy, the ANSA agency reported on Friday, sparking fear in the country’s meat sector.

African swine fever, highly contagious and lethal to pig populations, does not present any risk to human health, although it can be a serious blow to the meat industry.

With 8.9 million pigs, Italy is the seventh largest pork producer in the European Union, an industry that accounts for 8 billion euros ($ 9.1 billion), according to the agricultural association Confagricoltura.

According to ANSA, the case was detected during the analysis of a dead wild boar in Ovada, in the Piedmont region (north).

The AFP He tried to contact the institute that carried out the tests, to no avail.

African swine fever has existed in Africa for decades.

In Italy, it has only been present on the island of Sardinia, since 1978.

The disease spread to China, the world’s largest pork producer, in 2018, leading to the slaughter of millions of animals to prevent an epidemic.

In Western Europe, the virus was detected in Belgium in 2018 and this led the Chinese government to ban all imports of pork from that country.

After Germany confirmed the first wild boar death from this condition in 2020, China, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Argentina also suspended imports of German pigs.

According to ANSA, the reported case was notified to the Italian Ministry of Health, which should notify the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the European Commission.

According to an OIE report on December 3, African swine fever has been detected in 32 countries in five regions of the world since January 2020.

The disease has affected more than a million pigs and more than 28,000 wild boars worldwide. (I)