African swine fever alert in Satu Mare County

African swine fever virus was detected in a sample taken from a wild boar found dead on the Noroieni forest hunting ground in Satu-Mare County, about 6 kilometres from the Hungarian border and 10 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) informs on Thursday, according to antena3.ro.

“Following a notification from the Satu-Mare Forestry Directorate, a team of veterinary doctors from DSVSA Satu-Mare went to the area where wild boar was found (a female about 12-14 months old). With respect to all bio-security conditions, the body was transported to the Satu Mare Laboratory of Veterinary and Food Safety for examinations. The samples taken from the dead boar were sent to the Institute of Diagnosis and Animal Health in Bucharest – the National Reference Laboratory for Diagnosis and Animal Health, where the diagnosis of African swine fever was confirmed on May 29,” an ANSVSA release informs.

According to the quoted source, the possible way of contamination of the dead wild boar is by contact with other flocks of boars infected with the African swine fever viruses in Hungary or Ukraine, countries where the disease was diagnosed in the forest environment.

The ANSVSA, immediately upon receipt of the Bulletin from the Institute of Diagnosis and Animal Health, has notified all the national structures and the homologous structures in the European Union as well as the World Organization for Animal Health to confirm this primary outbreak of African swine fever in the forest environment on the territory of Romania.

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