According to figures from the Russian veterinary authority, Rosselkhoznadzor, the number of cases in Europe has reached 482, with 85 in Lithuania, 66 in Poland, 288 in Latvia and 43 in Estonia.

Russia has reported 18 cases of African swine fever since the beginning of the year and the veterinary authority said that the disease is in decline.

Just this week there have been 23 new cases of ASF. The outbreaks were reported in Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania and all cases effected wild boar only.

To be able to understand the spread of the disease in Eastern Europe, Rosselkhoznadzor said that it was necessary to realise that there were 4.5 million wild boar in the region and with the high density of livestock, it makes it difficult to control and eradicate the disease.

It added that many of the farms also did not have a high level of biosecurity measures in place.

The situation has been further complicated because of the different approaches from the various veterinary services in the different EU countries

“At the present stage in the development of ASF and the nature of its distribution, a number of EU countries have shown a lack of preventative measures to stop the spread and eradicate it,” Rosselkhoznadzor said.

Rosselkhoznadzor also stated that the introduction of temporary restrictions on the import of pig meat products from the EU was “a timely and reasonable step”.

In other disease news, MRSA has been detected in Haugesund, north of Stavanger, Norway. In total, six pig herds tested positive for MRSA and these farms were among those which had received pigs from manufacturer in Haugalandet who had MRSA in late May.

Canada has also reported another outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) in nursery pigs on a farm in Wellington county, Ontario.