Fighting CSF: “leave your sausages at home”

22-11-2006 | Home | Expert opinion

Coming from the UK, where currently we do not have swine fever, we would certainly not want the widespread use of swine fever vaccines throughout Europe, which would potentially mask the disease and its spread.

Coming from the UK, where currently we do not have swine fever , we would certainly not want the widespread use of swine fever vaccines throughout Europe, which would potentially mask the disease and its spread.

Our biggest fear is the disease coming back into the UK. We are not sure how it got in but it is thought that somebody fed the outdoor sows a salami sandwich or some other piece of cured meat.

Cured meats can carry the virus for several months, as the virus is acid resistant. This highlights the risks of how the disease can be spread.

The Dutch got it into one of their AI stations in the nineties and successfully spread it through much of their country. There are recent reports that it may be carried by foreign workers, presumably also using the cured sausage route.

In the recurring infection areas such as Germany, France and Italy wild boars have been shown to be a major reservoir of infection. This is the main reason that the pig industry in the UK, with over 30% of the sow herds kept outdoors, do not want a wild boar population.

It is generally accepted that the best control is to test and slaughter with a 3 km protection zone and a 10 km surveillance zone around the infected premises with restriction of movement of livestock. Vaccines may protect the animal from clinical disease but do not always stop the shedding of virus in infected pigs or its transfer to offspring, and hence it’s potential to spread horizontally to in contacts.

It is difficult for the countries where it is reportedly more endemic, such as Slovakia and the potentially new member states, Romania and Bulgaria. Certain counties in Romania continue to have outbreaks, usually on smaller, poorer farms, in spite of the test and slaughter policy to comply with the EU regulations , so a real problem exists in containing this infection. Vaccination may have to be reintroduced.

Overall, the UK pig industry is delighted to be revitalised by a new, competent workforce from the eastern EU, possibly 500,000 people have migrated to the UK, but please leave your sausages at home or at least do not feed the friendly pigs in the field.