National African Swine Fever (ASF) workshop on wild boar and hunting biosecurity

African swine fever (ASF) is a contagious viral disease of pigs and wild boar that causes severe economic losses to the pig sector. Originally restricted to Africa, ASF was introduced into Georgia in 2007, from where it progressively spread westwards (reaching Eastern and Central Europe) and eastwards. The disease was reported in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania in 2018, seriously threatening the Balkans. Based on experience, in Europe, the wild boar plays a crucial role in the maintenance and the spread of the disease.
To date, the Balkans have not been exposed to ASF. The lack of experiencing the disease first hand implies that the awareness among stakeholders and the technical knowledge on the disease would require further improvement and disease surveillance and control strategies should be harmonized with current experience and scientific knowledge on the disease.
In order to aid the Balkan region in their preparedness against African Swine Fever (ASF), an emergency TCP was lunched (TCP/RER/3704) in November 2018. The inception workshop was held on 18-21 February 2019, where several topics were identified one of which was to assist the countries in relation to wild boar and hunting biosecurity in relation to ASF. For this purpose National ASF Workshops on Wild boar and hunting biosecurity are lunched for each recipient country.

Language: English with simultaneous translation to Serbian

Objectives:
The primary objective of the workshop is to understand and give recommendations to Serbia on their national control strategy to prevent, early detect, conduct surveillance and, if cases are found, how to control ASF in wild boar. The secondary objective is to share experience and technical knowledge on ASF in wild boar and hunting biosecurity.

Participants:

• National Project Coordinator (NPC)
• Central level veterinary service responsible for ASF strategy development and supervision of implementation
• Representatives for central level authority responsible for game management and hunting
• Representatives for district level authority responsible for game management and hunting
• Representatives of public enterprises and/or hunting associations
• Experts on wild boar from academia, scientific institutes,
• The representatives /epidemiologists from Regional Control Centers (RCC)

Presentations

Overview of Game Management and Hunting in Serbia and current and future strategy to prevent and or control ASF in wild boar
Miodrag Strnad Serbia, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy, Forestry Directorate, Serbia

Introduction to African swine fever
Daniel Beltran-Alcrudo, Animal Health Officer, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

African swine fever in Lithuania
Marius Masiulis, International Expert on Wild Boar Management, FAO