Human spread has been blamed for Croatia’s biggest outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) yet, one of two new cases confirmed in recent days.
The virus was confirmed at the Sokolovac farm of meat producer Belje Plus in Baranja, in eastern Croatia, with 10,000 pigs needing to be culled, agriculture minister David Vlajcic said in a press release. The disease has also been confirmed in Nemetin, a suburb of Osijek in eastern Croatia, See News reported.
The minister said the virus is continuing to spread, despite all the precautionary measures taken, and was being driven ‘solely by human factors, irresponsibility, and illegal activities, with humans being the main carriers’, the report added.
Since 2023, Croatia has lost 41,000 pigs to ASF. With the addition of these two farms, the total will exceed 51,000 pigs, or roughly 5% of the country’s total pig population, he added.
“If we are not decisive, we could soon face a form of isolation within the EU, causing immeasurable damage to Croatian pig farming – and we will not allow that,” he said.
This is just one of a number of outbreaks on large domestic farms in Europe in recent weeks, with outbreaks on huge farms in Estonia and Latvia have resulted in the culling of close to 50,000 pigs.