Global African swine fever outbreaks decline - WOAH
Europe and Bhutan record new events in May
2 July 2026
1 minute read
By: African swine fever outbreaks in domestic pigs have been on a decreasing trend since August 2025, while wild boar cases peaked between October 2025 and January 2026 and have since also begun to fall, according to WOAH's May 2026 situation report.
During May, 32 new outbreaks were reported in domestic pigs and 478 in wild boars, with 1,167 animal losses in domestic pigs. Europe accounted for the vast majority of activity, with 29 domestic pig outbreaks and 478 wild boar outbreaks. Asia and the Pacific recorded three domestic pig outbreaks.
New ASF events were reported in Ukraine, where recurrence was confirmed in Poltava on 19 May, and in Bhutan, where recurrence was reported in Samtse and Chhukha on 2 and 11 May. Fourteen European countries reported updates to ongoing events, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Ukraine.
A notable geographic spread was recorded in Ukraine in May, where one outbreak was reported 60 kilometres from the nearest previously affected area — the most distant outbreak recorded during the reporting period. In total, 26 outbreaks during the period were notified more than 10 kilometres outside previously affected areas.
Since January 2022, 85 countries and territories have reported ASF, with 1,144,287 cases in pigs and 52,573 cases in wild boars, and 2,571,043 animal losses in domestic pigs.
WOAH said ASF continues to represent a global threat and urged members to maintain strict biosecurity, early reporting and awareness across the value chain. The organisation also called on members running vaccination programmes to share data with WOAH and the international community, noting that no country has officially reported vaccination use in response to outbreaks.
