An outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), identified in Piedmont on 7.1.22, has also triggered a high alert in Italy.
The disease, it will be recalled, had reappeared in Poland in 2019 and then spread to other EU countries including Germany and Serbia. (1)
Awareness raising among practitioners is now critical to help veterinary authorities contain the effects. And there is an urgent need to repeal regulations reintroducing the possibility of home slaughtering of animals in Italy in 2021.
African swine fever, a viral disease not transmissible to humans
African Swine Fever(ASF or PSA) is a highly contagious viral disease that affects only pigs and wild boars. It is characterized by severe hemorrhagic lesions to the skin and internal organs, resulting in death in more than 90% of cases. No vaccines or cures are still available. The disease, described as early as a century ago in central Africa, (2) is not transmissible to humans.
Humans, while not becoming infected, can contribute significantly to the spread of the virus, which is transmitted through:
– direct, fecal contact, and
– indirect contact, through contaminated kitchen waste, infected animal meat, agricultural and hunting materials and equipment.
Italy, background and the outbreak in Piedmont
Italy recorded the first appearance of ASF in 1967, with sporadic reappearances in 1971 and 1983. The disease was declared endemic in 1978 in Sardinia, where it is still awaiting final eradication. And the then Ministry of Health intervened effectively enough to isolate the disease and ‘regionalize’ animal health measures (including a ban on the export of pigs, carcasses and derived products) in Sardinia alone. (1)
On 7.1.22 , the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Umbria e delle Marche – a national reference center for swine plague – ascertained contamination of the carcass of a wild boar that died in Ovada in a road accident. (3) The Ministry of Health, in compliance with current regulations and the national contingency plan, immediately notified the European Commission and theWorld Organization for Animal Health (OIE ) of the outbreak.
Ministry of Health and Piedmont Region, activation of crisis unit
The Ministry of Health – through Luigi Ruocco, director of Office 3 (Animal Health and Operational Management of the National Animal Disease Control and Emergency Center and Central Crisis Unit) at the DG Animal Health and Veterinary Drugs — convened the first emergency meeting of the Expert Operations Group on 7.1.22. In order to ‘demarcate the infected area and define the extraordinary measures to be implemented to limit the spread of the disease,’ in view of the Central Crisis Unit meeting set for 10.1.22.
In turn, the Piedmont region has activated the Regional Crisis Unit (RCO) to organize ‘the search for additional wild boar carcasses in the territory, of controls on pig farms in the infected area, for the management of hunting activities, for providing operational guidance to stakeholders, and for the implementation of any other measures under the regulations necessary to counter the spread of the disease.’
In the meantime, the regional coordination nucleus organizes the activities to be put in place to manage the outbreak.
Wild pig surveillance and biosecurity in the domestic sector
‘Pending the transmission of further information and updating elements on the epidemiological situation and the delimitation of the infected area as well as the details of the measures that will be deemed necessary to undertake, in view of the very serious economic risk for the Italian pig production sector and the agri-food industry linked to it, it is recommended that
– To strengthen to the maximum throughout the country surveillance in the field of wildlife and
– Raise to the highest level of alertness the supervision of biosecurity measures in the domestic sectorwith special regard to all transport and handling operations of animals, feed, products and people‘ (min. Sal., Circular 7.1.22).
Wild boar hunting?
The wild boar population has doubled in the last decade, from 500 thousand in 2010 to more than a million in 2020 (stIme ISPRA), and causes serious damage to agriculture. ISPRA, however, highlighted the need to seek new solutions, as the extension of collective hunting for wild boar ‘has not proven effective in containing either the presence of wild boar or the damage caused by them.’
In fact, this form of hunting, so-called poaching, can cause the opposite effect of changing the social and genetic structure of populations and favoring the productivity of females. In addition to stimulating the mobility of wild boars to less disturbed areas (e.g., urbanized areas, more man-made agricultural areas), ‘where the risk of damage, road accidents, and the spread of infectious and infectious diseases carried by the species increases.’ (4)
Strict biosafety vigilance
Fabrizio De Stefani, director of the Veterinary Service of Food Hygiene of Animal Origin of the ULSS Pedemontana, stresses the need to strengthen supervision over the movement of animals and carcasses, feed and products. All operators-including hunters and ‘amateur’ farmers, whose livestock are most at risk of contact with wild boar-must understand the crucial value to the system-country of hygiene procedures to ensure biosecurity. (5)
‘Veterinary services . perform checks on live animals, the health status of which is a condition for both transport and slaughter. Anatomopathological inspection of the carcasses of each slaughtered animal is then conducted to identify any injuries or diseases potentially dangerous to humans or other animals. There is also an important garrison, the CLS (Center for Game Processing), where wild boars culled in the area in application of the regional control plan converge‘.
Do-it-yourself slaughtering, now Enough!
The African swine fever emergency-which comes on top of thehighly pathogenic avian influenza emergency-requires the immediate repeal of the regulations that reintroduced, in 2021, the possibility of slaughtering pigs and various other animals outside slaughterhouses, and so too do public veterinary inspections (6,7).
These regulations expose the system-country to serious food safety and public health risks, the effects of which could overwhelm entire production chains. Moreover, the slaughter of pigs outside of public surveillance is not compatible, ça va sans dir, with the measures taken by the European Commission to control the epidemiological development of African swine fever. (8)
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo, Carmela Mele, Alfonso Piscopo. African swine fever, high alert also in Europe. Insight. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 17.10.20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/peste-suina-africana-allerta-massima-anche-in-europa-approfondimento
(2) Penrith ML, Kivaria FM, Masembe C. (2021). One hundred years of African swine fever: A tribute to R. Eustace Montgomery. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2021 Sep;68(5):2640-2642. doi: 10.1111/tbed.14183. Epub 2021 Jun 17. PMID: 34102005.
(3) ANSA, Turin newsroom. Swine plague, case found in dead boar in Piedmont. 7.1.22, https://www.ansa.it/piemonte/notizie/2022/01/07/peste-suina-riscontrato-caso-in-cinghiale-morto-in-piemonte_24468509-41c4-4650-a114-22587a463858.html
(4) ISPRA. Opinion to the Abruzzo Region, 1.12.20, https://www.parcocastelliromani.it/app/webroot/userfiles/parere-ISPRA-56445_2020.pdf
(5) Anna Bianchin. African swine fever, first case: ‘Beware ofdomestic farms’ in Alto Vicentino. Upper Vicenza online. 8.1.22, https://bit.ly/3zJ8fqS
(6) Dario Dongo. Illegal slaughter, the outlawed rule. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.6.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/sicurezza/macellazione-clandestina-la-norma-fuorilegge-vanghepulite/
(7) Dario Dongo. Illegal slaughtering, short-circuiting the leghist. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 10/30/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/sicurezza/macellazione-clandestina-cortocircuito-leghista
(8) Commission Decision EU 2020/773 amending the Annex to Decision 2014/709/EU concerning animal health control measures relating to African swine fever in certain Member States (C/2020/4023). On Europa-Lex, https://bit.ly/3Gna2UI
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.