Will the African swine fever epidemic currently raging in Europe affect France? In any case it would be a threat to our portes », estimate the specialists who participated in the round table organized on February 24 by the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) at International exhibition ofagriculture.
Our country indeed has reason to be concerned about the spread of this serious disease affecting domestic pigs and wild boars. Because in several nearby European countries, cases are increasing.
Cases detected in Spain, Italy, Germany…
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In mid-February, two wild boars killed by this disease were found in Catalonia, far from the surveillance zone which had been established after the discovery of an outbreak of several cases at the end of last November. Thus, in three months around Barcelona (Spain), 155 wild animals were infected with the virus responsible for the disease.
According to the Weekly Animal Health Monitoring Bulletin (BHVSI-SA), who classified the epidemiological situation as “ worrying » for African swine fever (ASF), several cases have recently been detected in Italy, near Savona, 60 kilometers from the French border. There would also be an increase in wild case detections in the north of the country, mainly in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.
In Germany, where the disease is also spreading in a worrying manner, the cases closest to France have been detected in the municipality of Lampertheim, around 70 kilometers from the border.
Elsewhere, in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland and Romania, wild cases continue to be identified. In total, in Europe, since the beginning of July 2025, 698 outbreaks of swine fever have been detected in domestic pigs and 4,842 in wild boars.
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No treatment… or vaccine!
African swine fever, also called African swine fever (AFF), is a fatal viral disease which, in its acute form, causes the death of 100% of animals within 4 to 13 days (in 30 to 40 days with less mortality in its subacute form).
Problem: currently, there is no treatment or vaccine to combat ASF. The virus responsible for it is capable of infecting macrophages and divert the immune response animals for his own benefit.
« Son genome could only be sequenced in full in recent years and the Genoa involved in virulence or protection are not yet all identified, which complicates the development of vaccine reliable and efficient », according to ANSES.
The #PPA is an animal disease that exclusively affects pigs and wild boars. Present in certain European countries, France is unscathed.
Find the precautions to follow so as not to introduce and transport the virus into the territory ???? pic.twitter.com/lT8asxD3kY
— Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty (@Agri_Gouv) August 19, 2025
Potentially colossal economic losses
Harmless to humans and animals other than “suidae” (pigs and wild boars), the disease is taken very seriously by health authorities and stakeholders in the pork industry. When it affects pig farms, it is in fact likely to lead to “ major economic losses due to its mortality rate and trade restrictions imposed on affected countries », Explains ANSES.
China, the world’s largest producer of pigs, has for example lost more than 6.7 million pigs since August 2018, the start date of theepizootic. In Spain, the discovery of diseased wild boars caused the price of pork to fall by 30 cents per kilo due to the loss of the country’s “free” status.
The did you know ?
African swine fever is endemic in Africa; it has existed for at least a century among continental suids. It was described for the first time in Kenya in 1921. But, surprisingly, bush pigs, warthogs and other African wood hogs affected by the disease can be infected… without developing symptoms!
It was only from the 1960s, due to the development of international trade, that the virus made its first excursions outside Africa. In Europe, the disease had, at the time, been eradicated. However, it reappeared in 2007 in Georgia, when an unloading of contaminated pork from a boat reintroduced the virus to the continent, then spread to Russia and the European Union in 2014.
How are animals contaminated?
The virus responsible for ASF is extremely resistant. Four lanes of transmission were identified:
- contact with infected animals – even dead ones, since the virus can survive for several months;
- consumption of food contaminated by the virus; this is the case, for example, when pigs or wild boars are fed meat from contaminated pigs or products from contaminated animals (swill, waste food, plasma not heat treated…), which is prohibited on farms in France;
- contact with vehicles, people or contaminated materials (clothing, boots, needles, etc.);
- bite by “soft ticks” of the Ornithodoros genus (which, fortunately, are non-existent in France according to ANSES).
France is preparing…
African swine fever is a disease caused by immediate eradication » which involves, in Europe, drastic management measures, in particular the depopulation of all affected herds.
Currently, France is mainly trying to prepare for the arrival of the virus on the territory in order to be able to react as quickly as possible to the appearance of possible outbreaks: strengthening biosecurity on farms, providing breeders with an audit tool aimed at assessing their compliance with the regulations, monitoring the washing areas of trucks transporting the animals, etc.
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On the wild compartment side, the Sagir network, an epidemiological surveillance system for wildlife wild placed under the authority of the French Office of biodiversity (OFB), and largely composed of hunters, monitors wild boars.
We can bet that these efforts will be enough to resist the invader. Only Belgium, Sweden and the Czech Republic have managed to get rid of the disease to date, and it took time: between one and four years. No easy feat!
