African Swine Fever (ASF) Policy Event (WP5)

17 November 2014

Organized by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the event was aimed at improving preparedness for African swine fever (ASF), a deadly disease affecting pigs. Forty experts from the EU and Asia met in Beijing on 17 November to explore how lessons learned in Europe on fighting ASF could be applied to Asia, to identify the main policy gaps in East and Southeast Asia and ultimately to develop a set of recommendations and a follow-up strategy for ASF policy in the region. The ASF situation has considerably worsened over the past years, with the disease continuing to spread in traditionally endemic sub-Saharan Africa. Now with a new front opening up along the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, ASF is expanding into historically free countries. The risk of ASF entering Asia is the highest ever, and China is of particular concern since the country houses almost half of the worldwide pig population. China is the biggest importer of pork and over the past few years has developed very strong links with ASF-infected countries in Africa. China also shares a border with the ASF-endemic Russian Federation. Since China and Asia in general have never encountered ASF the region is ill-prepared for an eventual incursion of ASF in terms of policy and capacity. Therefore, an ASF epidemic in the region would have catastrophic effects on global pork supply and protein availability.

Participants endorsed 11 cross-cutting recommendations for immediate action to build preparedness and improve ASF policy making. These recommendations included increasing communication and awareness conducting risk assessments, ensuring training, assessing policies, addressing backyard, low-biosecurity and wild boar issues, linking with other swine disease efforts, collaborating with forestry authorities and hunters and mobilizing additional resources.

The agenda for the meeting can be found