ASF Estonia: Ekseko farm falls victim, pig culls exceed 55,000

The outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Estonia continue to make victims amongst the population of domestic swine in the country. A location of Ekseko, the country’s largest swine farm was confirmed infected, pushing the total amount of culls this summer beyond 55,000 in Estonia.

The farm with 27,832 pigs was confirmed infected on August 26 – an amount communicated by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). Under EU legislation, the entire farm had to be culled. The farm is located near the village Mäeltküla, in Viljandi county – pretty centrally located.

The Estonian Agriculture and Food Board (PTA) confirmed the outbreak took place on a farrowing unit of Ekseko.

On the same day, another Estonian farm was found infected in the same province, near the village Anikatsi. There, altogether 1,500 pigs had to be culled. As the crow flies, both farms are about 20 km away from one another.

Inge Saavo is head of PTA in the southern region of Estonia. ERR, the English-language service of Estonian public broadcasting quoted her saying, “In both farms, one pig tested positive. Because of the disease, all pigs on site must be culled.”

About the Ekseko farm, she continued to say, “The ASF-positive pig showed nosebleeds, bleeding from the eyes and a bluish skin tone. Other pigs have also died or fallen ill. The farrowing unit’s pigs must be culled. Restrictions will also apply to the fattening unit, where animals will remain under monitoring.”

ERRalso quoted Priit Dreimann, a management board member of Maag Agro, holding company of Ekseko. He said, “We are now talking about culling 27,000 pigs. Such a large-scale culling at Ekseko would break the entire production chain and halt pig farming at the site for a considerable time. Unfortunately, this is a nationwide crisis and the largest ever faced in Estonian pig farming.”

In total, now 10 farm sites have been infected with African Swine Fever this summer in Estonia. As the map shows, most of them occurred in the southern part of the country, with only a backyard farm of 6 pigs infected in Rapla county, more towards the north. That occurred mid-July.

Half of the 2025 outbreaks took place in Viljandi county, which is in the centre of Estonia.  The other outbreaks took place in Tartu county (3) and Pölva county. Apart from Ekseko farm, most other affected facilities also had more than 1,000 animals on-site. Among those were farms of 6,742 pigs, 6,369 pigs and 4,447 pigs.

According to WOAH data, this year also 130 wild boar have been confirmed infected with ASF in Estonia.

Tags: African Swine Fever, Pigs, Estonia, outbreaks, World Organisation for Animal Health