ASF Poland: Virus hits farm in the west with 16,000 pigs

The case was confirmed on March 17, according to a report by Poland’s General Veterinary Inspectorate (GVI). It is the first outbreak that was confirmed in the new year. It was found near Niedźwiady in Lubusz province. On the map the location is shown as a professional site, which is surrounded by ASF outbreaks in wild boar.

According to regulations, a 10km zone has been installed around the farm. The entire farm, which held 15,938 pigs, will have to be depopulated. With that size, it is the second largest pig farm in Poland to be depopulated because of ASF since the outbreaks started in 2014. Only in March 2020 a farm in Niedoradz, Lubusz province, Western Poland had more pigs on site (almost 24,000).

Pig farm number 13 in Western Poland

Since the first discovery of ASF in Poland, the virus has been confirmed on 341 different farm sites. In 2020 in total 103 farms tested positive, which was the highest number per year so far. It is perhaps not so surprising, taking into account that a new virus cluster came into existence in Western Poland in November 2019. The current virus outbreak constitutes case number 13 on a farm site in Western Poland. The majority of wild boar cases in Western Poland (3,300) were found in Lubusz province.

Typically, most ASF farm outbreaks take place in the warmer summer months.