News

The fifteenth meeting of GF-TADs Standing Group of Experts on African Swine Fever (SGE ASF15) set up under GF-TADs umbrella (World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) initiative) was held in videoconference format on May 6, 2020 with the involvement of the European Commission (EC), OIE Regional Representation in Moscow, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The videoconference format was chosen due to the spread of novel COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was focused on the discussion of the effectiveness of ASF anti-epidemic measures in the context of COVID-19 spread. The participants of the meeting discussed the current epidemic situation in the ASF-infected Eurasian countries (Moldova, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Romania, Czechia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Belarus and Belgium) as well as in the Asian countries (DPR of Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, etc.) and the outcomes of the implemented ASF prevention and eradication measures in the context of COVID-19 spread.

During the meeting the Russian party was represented by Nikita Lebedev, Advisor to the Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor, and Alexey Igolkin (Head of the Reference Laboratory for ASF, FGBI “Federal Centre for Animal Health”). The Russian party noted the tendency of cluster spread of ASF in Russia in 2019-2020 and forecasted the development of the epidemic in the populations of wild boars and domestic pigs.

The next meeting of SGE ASF is scheduled for November 2020.

FGBI ARRIAH Press Service