Modular framework to assess the risk of African swine fever virus entry into the European Union

Background The recent occurrence and spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Eastern Europe is perceived as a serious risk for the pig industry in the European Union (EU). In order to estimate the potential risk of ASF virus (ASFV) entering the EU, several pathways of introduction were previously ass...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Mur, Lina, Martínez López, Beatriz, Costard, Solenne, Torre Reoyo, Ana de la, Jones, B. A., Martínez Avilés, Marta, Sánchez-Vizcaíno, Fernando, Muñoz, M. J., Pfeiffer, D. U., Sánchez-Vizcaíno, J. M., Wieland, B.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/293794
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/293794
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:African swine fever
Emerging diseases
Introduction
European Union
Pigs
Risk assessment
Semi-quantitative framework
Transboundary disease
Descripción
Sumario:Background The recent occurrence and spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Eastern Europe is perceived as a serious risk for the pig industry in the European Union (EU). In order to estimate the potential risk of ASF virus (ASFV) entering the EU, several pathways of introduction were previously assessed separately. The present work aimed to integrate five of these assessments (legal imports of pigs, legal imports of products, illegal imports of products, fomites associated with transport and wild boar movements) into a modular tool that facilitates the visualization and comprehension of the relative risk of ASFV introduction into the EU by each analyzed pathway.Results The framework's results indicate that 48% of EU countries are at relatively high risk (risk score 4 or 5 out of 5) for ASFV entry for at least one analyzed pathway. Four of these countries obtained the maximum risk score for one pathway Bulgaria for legally imported products during the high risk period (HRP); Finland for wild boar; Slovenia and Sweden for legally imported pigs during the HRP. Distribution of risk considerably differed from one pathway to another; for some pathways, the risk was concentrated in a few countries (e.g.;transport fomites), whereas other pathways incurred a high risk for 4 or 5 countries (legal pigs, illegal imports and wild boar).Conclusions The modular framework, developed to estimate the risk of ASFV entry into the EU, is available in a public domain, and is a transparent, easy-to-interpret tool that can be updated and adapted if required. The model's results determine the EU countries at higher risk for each ASFV introduction route, and provide a useful basis to develop a global coordinated program to improve ASFV prevention in the EU. © 2014 Mur et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.