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After the notification, by the Official Veterinary Services of Poland, of the presence of three outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) in six wild boars found dead in the region of Mazowieckie, two of them in the district of Legionowski, 140 km away from the Eastern border, and four more in the district of Warszawski-Zachodni, and bearing in mind that they are outside the restriction areas defined in the appendix of Implementing Decision 2014/709/EU, measures foreseen in Directive 2002/60/EC that establish specific regulations for fighting ASF have been implemented.
After the notification of these cases by Poland, the Implementing Decision (EU) 2017/2176 of the Commission of November 21st, 2017 (regarding certain provisional protection measures with respect to ASF in Poland, among them the establishment of an infected area around each outbreak) has been published.
The detection of new outbreaks confirms, on the one hand, the slow but constant progress of the disease from the East of Europe towards western regions, and on the other hand, the ability of this disease to spread through long distances, probably helped by the human factor and the transport of contaminated products, as proven in the cases declared in wild boars in the Czech Republic. These events increase the risk of spreading the disease, and they make advisable the maximisation of the surveillance and prevention measures in the rest of the member countries.
During 2007, ASF has remained active in the EU eastern countries, with a rise of cases in wild boars, and also on domestic pig farms since early summer in Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the appearance, for the first time, of the disease in the Czech Republic by late June, and on two domestic pig farms in Romania in July. So far this year, these countries have notified 2,949 outbreaks in wild boars and 123 in domestic pigs. Outside the EU, the situation is especially serious in Ukraine, where 113 outbreaks on domestic pig farms and 18 in wild boars have been confirmed so far this year; and in the Russian Federation, where 103 outbreaks in domestic pigs and 33 in wild boars have been notified in 2017.
Monday, November 27th, 2017/ Directorate-General of Agricultural Production Health-MAPAMA/ Spain.
http://www.mapama.gob.es
