African Swine Fever enters Polish pig herd

Previous outbreaks have been discovered amongst the country’s wild boar population, sparking import bans on Polish pork from countries such as Russia and China, but until recently, no cases of ASF had been discovered within the farmed pig production sector.

The discovery is reported to have been made on a small farm near the border with Belarus, with the farm thought to contain just five pigs. However, Polish authorities said surrounding farms may also have to slaughter their animals to avoid the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, thousands of pigs have been culled in Lithuania after the country confirmed its first cases of ASF. The country’s food and veterinary services confirmed the cases on a Danish-owned large farm in the north-east, near the border with Latvia and Belarus.

The farm is reported to have had 19,000 pigs, all of which have now been destroyed.