ASF Latvia: Farm with 20,000 pigs infected

Not only the Baltic state of Estonia is currently suffering from a new wave of on-farm African Swine Fever outbreaks, so is neighbouring country Latvia.

The country’s Food and Veterinary Service (PVD) reported on its website that the virus has been detected on a swine farm of Baltic Pork with 20,000 head on-site, which all will have to be culled. The farm is located in Laubere parish, Ogre municipality, in the heart of the country. The village is located about 60 km east of the capital Riga.

The PVD has been carrying out disease control and containment measures as well as epidemiological investigations at the farm.

It was already the 8th pig farm this summer that reported an outbreak of African Swine Fever in Latvia, the PVD wrote. Most of the others were relatively small-size (fewer than 100 head on-site) with the exception of a farm in Talsi municipality, where 4,900 pigs had to be culled.

The first outbreak in Latvia occurred early May. Detailed information on the outbreaks have not (yet) been communicated by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

Somewhate more south, in Lithuania, also 5 farms reported outbreaks of ASF on their farms. Those farms were all small-scale, with often only a few animals on-site. The WOAH has not reported those outbreaks either so far – but the Lithuanian State Food and Veterinary Service (LRV) has.

The outbreak in Laubere parish is about 150 km south of the border with Estonia. In that other Baltic country, up until now 10 farms have been reported infected this summer. The largest farm that needed to be evacuated had almost 28,000 pigs on-site.

Tags: African Swine Fever, Pigs, Latvia, outbreaks, Virus