No ASF outbreak in pig holdings was noted in Poland
As regards the ASF situation in wild boars, the disease is approaching Łodzkie province - a region that is the third producer of live pigs as well as Swietokrzyskie and Pomorskie province. The ASF restricted areas slowly move westwards. Also statistical data for the first months of 2020 are not optimistic, as over 900 new ASF cases were confirmed, as compared to less than 500 noted by the end of February 2019.
The ASF situation is developing in the west, with second highest number of infected wild boars in Poland and Part II restricted area reaching the German border.
In order to facilitate wild boar population reduction in Poland the new legislation was passed and entered into force on 31 January 2020. It introduces the obligation to perform sanitary shooting and facilitates such hunting, penalising, among others, obstructing hunting by private persons.
Also a number of financial instruments is offered to farmers keeping more than 50 pigs for biosecurity investments. Also all farmers can apply for funds if they decide to resign from pig farming in ASF restricted areas.
Additionally, recently Polish press has informed about the scientific developments in the ASF virus research. British and Polish scientists are reported to map the gene expression in the entire ASF virus genome. At the same time American researchers announced that they managed to create the effective ASF vaccine.
ASF epizootic situation in wild boars
In 2019, Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, Lubelskie, Warminsko-Mazurskie provinces, struggling with the disease for a long time, were also joined by the Podkarpackie, Lubuskie, Dolnośląskie and Wielkopolskie provinces, newly affected with ASF.
Among the "old" provinces infected with ASF, the situation is the most favourable in Podlaskie, the region where ASF occurrence was first recorded in 2014. In 2020, about 40 cases were recorded mainly in the southern part of the province.
In 2020, in Mazowieckie province infected wild boars (app. 70 cases) are recorded mostly in the area south of Warsaw. In this region, the case no. 2020/361 was notified, which is located almost at the border with Łodzkie province - a region that is the third producer of live pigs in Poland.
In 2020 over 200 cases of ASF were recorded in Lubelskie province, which is worrying as the number of newly infected animals is still great and statistically might be higher in 2020 than in 2019.
In the first months of 2020 Warminsko-Mazurskie province is the region with the highest number of recorded ASF cases in wild boars. In 2020, the negative trend of ASF occurrence in the north of the region is continued (about 260 cases), in particular moving closer to the borders of Pomorskie province in the west.
The above data clearly shows that in all provinces that have been fighting the disease for a long time, the number of new infections has decreased. Unfortunately, four other provinces joined them in 2019. Of these, most new cases of ASF were confirmed in Lubuskie. In only 1.5 months of 2019, 71 cases of the disease occurred in this region. It is worth mentioning that in the west of the country the situation related to the development of ASF is very dynamic. During the first month of 2020, 240 new cases (second highest number) were confirmed in Lubuskie. The disease is already just app. 12 km from the German border with large number of infected wild boars found in the southern part of the province.
The last weeks of 2019 also brought the first cases of ASF in Wielkopolskie province. In the region 11 cases of the disease were confirmed in 2019 and almost 50 in 2020. However, in 2020 new cases are noted in the fenced area and the situation seems to be quite stable there. It must be however remembered that Wielkopolskie province is the first producer of live pigs in Poland, accounting for almost 33% of Polish pig population, therefore the presence of the ASF virus in the wild life in the region threatens the pig production.
In turn, in Dolnośląskie province, 2 cases of disease were confirmed in 2019 and since then no new infected wild boars have been confirmed.
In 2020, over 70 cases have already been recorded in Podkarpackie province, mainly in the areas neighbouring Lubelskie province. Unfortunately, recently a cluster of new cases was detected at the border with Swietokrzyskie province, which is still free from the disease.
In total, the comparison of the data for February shows over 900 new ASF cases in 2020, as opposed to less than 500 noted by the end of February 2019.
The ASF situation lead to the changes to the ASF regionalization in Poland. On 28 February 2020 Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/291 amending the Annex to Implementing Decision 2014/709/EU concerning animal health control measures relating to African swine fever in certain Member States was published. As a result the new areas were included in Part II of the Annex to Implementing Decision 2014/709/EU in Lubuskie province (west of Poland), as well as in the western parts of Warminsko-Mazurskie province (north of Poland) and of Podkarpackie province (south of Poland). Additionally, in Part II and Part I were extended in Mazowieckie province (central Poland), covering also part of Łodzkie province. Moreover, small parts in Lubelskie province change their status from part III areas to Part II areas, due to the favourable situation. Nevertheless, the ASF restricted areas slowly move westwards.
ASF eradication strategy
Measures proposed in the document “Strategic approach to the management of African Swine Fever for the EU” (SANTE/7113/2015 – Rev 11 of 25.11.2019) are followed with regard to ASF measures to be applied for domestic pigs (biosecurity on pig farms, inspection and investigation regime, awareness campaigns addressed to farmers, laboratory tests for screening).
As regards ASF measures for management of wild boar populations in the context of ASF control, the Polish government sees the greatest challenge in reducing wild boar population. Therefore the new legislation was passed and entered into force on 31 January 2020.
The Act of 20 December 2019 amending certain acts to facilitate the control of infectious animal diseases introduces legal regulations to combat infectious animal diseases, in particular African swine fever (ASF) and is associated with the enlargement of the ASF infected area and with the need to reduce wild boar population in the territory of Poland. The ASF Act changes the provisions in 9 other acts and is to facilitate the eradication of this disease primarily by facilitating culling of wild boars and increasing biosecurity.
The most important changes include introduction to hunting law of sanitary hunting regulations. Sanitary shooting will take place on the basis of individual authorization issued by the director of the national park or the regional director for environmental protection, respectively. In addition, the administrator or leaseholder of the hunting district is authorised to address the authorities of the Police, Border Guard, State Fire Service or Veterinary Inspection for help in securing the area where hunting takes place. There will be a penalty for obstructing hunting.
The Act also introduces provisions regarding compliance with the principles of biosecurity during hunting or sanitary hunting. It also provides for a new procedure for appointing and recalling the National Hunting and District Hunting. He will be appointed and dismissed by the minister responsible for the environment.
The Polish Veterinary Inspection reminds that the most effective way to fight the virus is to simultaneously carry out activities: reduction of the wild boar population, protection of farms keeping pigs against the introduction of ASF virus (biosecurity), collection and utilization of fallen wild boars in order to eliminate the virus from the environment and public awareness.
Financial assistance to farmers
The Ministry of Agriculture has provided financial assistance for investments protecting farms keeping pigs against ASF. As part of such assistance, a farmer who has a herd of over 50 pigs may receive a maximum of 100,000 PLN throughout the entire RDP implementation period 2014-2020, for investments protecting against the spread of ASF, e.g. by fencing a piggery, creating or modernizing a roofed disinfection basin, buying disinfection equipment, and making investments enabling keeping pigs in separate, closed rooms. The aid refunds up to 80% of the eligible costs of the planned activities.
At the same time, for farmers keeping up to 50 pigs, they can benefit from the support instrument "Restructuring small farms" intended for restructuring farms where pig production is carried out in areas designated in connection with the occurrence of African swine fever. In order to be granted support, farmers decide to permanently give up pig production, i.e. they will undertake not to raise and breed pigs for at least 5 years after paying the first premium installment. Aid in the form of a bonus of 60,000 PLN is paid in two installments.
In addition, from 28 February to 28 March 2020, farmers can submit applications for up to 250,000 PLN assistance for starting non-agricultural activities. The recruitment is intended for those who, in the rural areas covered by ASF, are breeding or rearing pigs and want to give up.
The catalog of economic activities covered by the support is wide and includes services, production and sale of various products not related to agriculture. The amount of aid depends on the number of newly created jobs. If you create one job, you can count on receiving a non-returnable bonus of 150,000 PLN, with two new jobs the bonus increases to 200,000 PLN, and with three to 250,000 PLN.
The premium for starting non-agricultural activities is paid in two installments. The first (80%) farmer will receive if he fulfills the conditions set out in the grant decision, and will have 9 months to do it (counted from the date of delivery of the decision). The remaining 20 percent the bonus will be transferred to his account after settlement of the business plan implementation.
A maximum of two years (counted from the date of payment of the first part of the bonus) and no later than 31 August 2023 is provided for the submission of the application for the second installment of the aid. It is important that 70% of bonus amount were spent on investments in fixed assets, i.e. the purchase of machinery and equipment, means of transport or equipment. The remaining 30 percent can be used for current expenses related to starting a business.
In addition, under RDP 2014-2020 it is possible to implement investments involving the restoration of agricultural production potential, damaged in connection with the occurrence of ASF in pigs kept on the farm or in connection with the order to cull animals on the farm from the Part II or III areas.
Aid is granted to farmers who have suffered farm damage caused by, inter alia, ordering the killing of pigs or the destruction of the corpses of pigs to combat ASF.
The support covers farmers, pig producers who lost pigs and resign from rearing or breeding pigs for the next 5 years from the date of payment of the final payment.
The aid is granted in the form of refunds up to 80% of eligible costs that can be incurred from the date of submission of the aid application. The amount of assistance under this support instrument during the implementation of the program is a maximum of 300,000 PLN per beneficiary and per farm.
Research developments
Recently the positive developments have been witnessed in the ASF research. According to the Pigprogress.net portal, a team of scientists from Great Britain and Poland has mapped gene expression in the entire ASF virus genome. Thanks to the new gene sequencing method, scientists have succeeded in preparing a kind of 'road map' of the virus genes, which determines the order of activation of individual genes in subsequent stages of infection. This knowledge will be used in the future to analyze the activity of viral genes, which will help in effective control of the disease. It can help in developing an effective vaccine against ASF or anti-virus drugs.
Simultaneously, according to a study published in the Journal of Virology, American researchers managed to create a vaccine that was developed on the basis of the highly pathogenic virus strain - ASFV-G. It is the same strain that is responsible for ASF epizootia in Central European countries, including Poland. However, the virus was modified to deprive it of one gene. It was enough to limit its virulence to zero.
Studies conducted on a group of animals show the high effectiveness of the developed vaccine. After intramuscular administration of the modified virus, all animals showed no signs of viremia (which indicates the safety of this method), and developed a strong immune response to the ASFV-G virus. Most importantly, vaccinated animals exposed to the virulent strain during the 28-day study period did not show any disease symptoms indicative of African swine fever.
This is so far the first vaccine, which preliminary studies have confirmed the effectiveness in the fight against ASF. The entire industry will have to wait a long time before it will be available commercially - before being allowed to use further research procedures are needed to confirm the effectiveness and safety of the preparation. However, the latest discovery could be a milestone in the fight against African swine fever.
Source: Polish Veterinary Service (CVO), Ministry of Agriculture (MARD), FARMER, RZECZPOSPOLITA