pigs

A European project, led by the Spanish veterinarian José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaínois going to test on wild boars a African swine fever vaccine a disease that scares the European pig industry due to the serious economic damage that a single infection on a farm would entail. Currently, there is no vaccine in Europe.

The one created by the Vacdiva project has already begun to be tested in a laboratory in Madridwhere wild boars that were kept captive in the facilities themselves were inoculated to control the process and where it was proven that it provided protection against this disease.

The project is an international collaboration that includes laboratories from Europe, Africa and China and whose financing comes, almost entirely, from European Union fundsaccording to the European Commission magazine Horizon, since it was the EU that addressed the need to develop this treatment. The project was originally going to end in September 2023, but has been extended until July 2024.

Now, after passing the laboratory phase in Madrid, the researchers are going to take their tests to a forest in Hungary with the intention of analyzing the results in wild boars.

The intention is to be able to measure the effect of the vaccination program on a population of wild boars, which are the main objective of this treatment that is expected to be available between the end of 2024 and 2025.

The wild boar, the main vector of African swine fever

The focus of research to stop the spread of this disease is placed on wild boars because these animals are considered the main vector and a risk for the pork industry.

“The biggest problem in Europe right now and since the disease began is the wild boar,” Sánchez-Vizcaíno, professor of Animal Health at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Complutense University of Madrid, tells THE OBJECTIVE. “We have realized that it is more important to protect wild boars than domestic pigsthat’s why they are our main objective,” he adds.

The disease does not affect humans, but it is fatal for pigs and wild boars and a single infection on a farm would mean the sacrifice of all the animals, in addition to a temporary limitation of foreign trade in the entire area in which the disease is included. exploitation. Therefore, a single case would cause serious economic damage to the entire industry and not just those directly affected.

Wild boars usually become infected after eating food contaminated with the virus, which remains in the meat for several days. Given the increasingly common movement of these animals outside their natural environment, there is a greater risk that they will eat food that humans have thrown in the trash. That’s why, ranchers fear a growing wild boar population poses a risk regarding the spread of this disease, which at the moment has not reached Spain, and they often ask for control of its population.

An oral vaccine for affected areas

The way to give this vaccine to wild boars in the affected areas will be oral, through bait “with great palatability and an aroma that greatly attracts them,” explains Sánchez-Vizcaíno.

Subsequent control will be done by taking samples and It will be possible to differentiate whether an animal is infected, free of the disease or vaccinated Thanks to the fact that what has been developed is a DIVA vaccine, that is, it differentiates between the vaccine itself and the disease, which allows, when analyzing the samples, to detect whether the vaccination objective is being met.

A process that Sánchez-Vizcaíno only recommends carrying out with wild boars from affected areas or areas at serious risk and not in a preventive manner. “I I would never recommend a country free of the disease to vaccinate, because the moment you do it, you are no longer completely free, you already have the antibodies,” explains the expert. Furthermore, he points out that, if he needed it due to any contagion or risk, “he would never do a generalized vaccination, but rather a circle vaccination to prevent the infection from leaving the area.”

And once animal immunization is introduced, the rules change when it comes to exporting the product and, therefore, it would represent an added difficulty for the pork industry. For this reason, he insists, “we work effectively so that the vaccine can stop the disease and its spread and thus avoid having to vaccinate the domestic pig or, if we have to do it, that there are very few farms that need it.

It affects 14 countries of the European Union

African swine fever has not yet affected Spain, but the industry is equally afraid because it has has expanded to various countries in Europe. The last outbreak detected was in Sweden, where health authorities reported a wild boar died from the disease 400 kilometers from the closest affected area, which is located in Estonia.

Although perhaps this case is less worrying due to the distance that separates it from Spain, the Association of Young Farmers and Ranchers (Asaja) affirms that “it reflects that it is a new long-distance jump from the disease“, which is why they consider that it represents “a great risk due to its unpredictability and danger for all countries.”

Another of the last to detect an outbreak was Italy, which at the end of August reported that cases had been recorded in a domestic pig farm in the Pavia region, one not affected until then.

In total, the list of people affected by African swine fever in the European Union now adds up to 14 countries.

Although France, the most possible entry route to Spain, is not affected either, livestock farmers ask for extreme precautions due to the spread of cases from some European countries to others.

2023-09-18 01:35:34
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