African swine fever (ASF) has been found in a wild boar in the Czech Republic, close to the borders of Germany and Poland.
This is the first case of ASF in the Czech Republic since it successfully eradicated its previous outbreak in wild boar in April 2018, 10 months after it was first detected.
The country’s State Veterinary Authority (SVS) announced on Friday that the virus had been detected in a dead wild boar in the municipality of Jindrichovice pod Smrkem in Friedländer Zipfel [Frýdlant]. It is approximately 6km away from the Polish border and 30km away from the German border. It is around 35km east of the Saxon border town of Zittau, in Germany. Germany has been battling with ASF in wild boar in Saxony and neighbouring state Brandenburg for more two years.
According to a report on the global disease monitoring service ProMED, the Czech authorities are establishing an infection area of around 200 sq.km. Within this zone, entering the forest and hunting wild boar will be prohibited, while the municipalities in which the measures apply are required to make an inventory of all pigs kept in households by December 9.
Farmers who keep pigs for non-commercial purposes will have to have the pigs slaughtered within 10 days. It is also forbidden to keep pigs outdoors in the infection zone and to move pigs into the infection zone, except for immediate slaughter at the slaughterhouse.
The Czech veterinary authorities managed to eradicate the previous ASF outbreak in wild boar, on the Republic’s eastern border, within 10 months, thanks effective surveillance, early detection and severe, meticulously applied control and eradication measures. It started on June 21, 2017, and was declared ‘resolved’ by April 19, 2018.
ASF has not been detected in domestic pigs in the Czech Republic.