African swine fever on the rise in eastern Europe
23rd Apr 2018 / By Alistair Driver
The number of cases of African swine fever in Eastern Europe has increased significantly in the first few months of 2018.
The European Commission's latest update through its animal diseases notification system (ADNS) shows there were 2,259 cases recorded in wild boar between January 1 and April 15. This is more than half of the total cases notified in all of 2017, according to the Pig Progress website.
The figures, which highlight the scale of the problem in Poland and Lithuania in particular, are summarised by country below:
| Country | Date of the last outbreak | Outbreaks |
| Czech Republic | April 11th, 2018 | 25 |
| Estonia | April 9th, 2018 | 150 |
| Italy | January 30th, 2018 | 24 |
| Latvia | April 12th, 2018 | 286 |
| Lithuania | April 12th, 2018 | 728 |
| Poland | April 13th, 2018 | 1020 |
| Ukraine | April 8th, 2018 | 26 |
A further 31 cases of domestic pig infections were recorded in the period, as shown in the following table:
| Country | Date of the last outbreak | Outbreaks |
| Italy | February 12th, 2018 | 2 |
| Poland | February 23rd, 2018 | 4 |
| Romania | February 23rd, 2018 | 3 |
| Ukraine | April 6th, 2018 | 22 |