Next Article in Journal
Herpes Virus Infection in Lung Transplantation: Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention Strategies
Next Article in Special Issue
Characterization of an African Swine Fever Virus Field Isolate from Vietnam with Deletions in the Left Variable Multigene Family Region
Previous Article in Journal
ATG8f Interacts with Chilli Veinal Mottle Virus 6K2 Protein to Limit Virus Infection
Previous Article in Special Issue
African Swine Fever: Transmission, Spread, and Control through Biosecurity and Disinfection, Including Polish Trends
 
 
Review
Peer-Review Record

Nine Years of African Swine Fever in Poland

Viruses 2023, 15(12), 2325; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15122325
by Mateusz Kruszyński 1, Kacper Śróda 2, Małgorzata Juszkiewicz 3, Dominika Siuda 4, Monika Olszewska 5 and Grzegorz Woźniakowski 5,*
Reviewer 1: Anonymous
Reviewer 2: Anonymous
Reviewer 3: Anonymous
Viruses 2023, 15(12), 2325; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15122325
Submission received: 26 October 2023 / Revised: 13 November 2023 / Accepted: 23 November 2023 / Published: 27 November 2023
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategies for Preventing Viral Diseases of Domestic Animals)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious disease of pigs, and outbreaks cause tremendous impact on global swine production. The presented review summarizes the history and current situation of ASF in wild boars and domestic pigs in Poland. In general, this manuscript is well written and the experience in ASF controlling is might be useful for increase the knowledge and improvement of the control strategies against ASF.

Minor recommendations: 

1. How is the population and density of domestic pigs and wild boars in Poland?

2. The authors are recommended to visualize the ASF outbreak events in Poland using a map.

3. The authors are suggested to discuss the global situation of ASF. 

4. Lines 52-55: Maintaining high standards of biosecurity measures including disinfection may reduce many potential sources of infection Ticks of the genus Ornithodoros in endemic areas have been shown to be a frequent vector of the virus, participating in its transmission. 

Before the word “Ticks”, ending punctuation was missing.

5. Please confirm the description is correct or not in Lines 60-61: ASFV is rapidly spreading across different parts of Europe and Asia as it has been confirmed in…

Author Response

Reviewer #1

Reviewer #1 African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious disease of pigs, and outbreaks

cause tremendous impact on global swine production. The presented review summarizes the

history and current situation of ASF in wild boars and domestic pigs in Poland. In general,

this manuscript is well written and the experience in ASF controlling is might be useful for

increase the knowledge and improvement of the control strategies against ASF.

Author GW: Many thanks for your kind and valuable support to improve our manuscript I

believe the changes introduced into the manuscript will meet your expectations. The changes

are marked in yellow.

Minor recommendations:

Reviewer #1: How is the population and density of domestic pigs and wild boars in Poland?

Author GW: The population of domestic pigs in Poland in 2023 was 8,3 mln of pigs

distributed in 50 thousand of pig farms. The average size of herd is 165 pigs. In case of wild

boar, the highest density over 2-4 wild boar per square km is in western Poland. The overall

estimated wild boar number is at the level of 67 thousand of wild boar. Additional comment

has been added in Introduction section line #83-86.

Reviewer #1: The authors are recommended to visualize the ASF outbreak events in Poland

using a map.

Author GW: Additional graphs showing number of ASF outbreaks in wild boar and domestic

pigs have been added. Additional map showing current epizootic situation in Poland during

2023 has been added.

Reviewer #1: The authors are suggested to discuss the global situation of ASF.

Author GW: The global situation has been discussed in introduction section between #67 and

#81 lines. Additional comments have been added also in lines#81-82.

Reviewer #1: Lines 52-55: Maintaining high standards of biosecurity measures including

disinfection may reduce many potential sources of infection Ticks of the genus Ornithodoros

in endemic areas have been shown to be a frequent vector of the virus, participating in its

transmission. Before the word “Ticks”, ending punctuation was missing.

Author GW: thank you for this remark an additional correction has been added.

Reviewer #1: Please confirm the description is correct or not in Lines 60-61: ASFV is rapidly

spreading across different parts of Europe and Asia as it has been confirmed in…

Author GW: This has been a misunderstanding. Additional corrections have been added in

lines #60-63.

Thank you for your valuable comments.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

A manuscript describing the course of events as regards ASF transmission in the last nine years in Poland. Parts of the manuscript are presented as a chronology and especially for readers who are not aware of the countries districts, it is quite difficult to follow the route of transmission among prefectures, as well as the zones created. Comments and corrections can be found in the attached pdf file. Moreover particular information that should be inserted includes:

  ·      Maps of the areas affected presenting the gradual outbreaks expansion in wild and domestic population should be added.

 

·      Selected tissues sampled and results would be also informative. 

·      Clinical signs and necropsy findings which occurred predominantly (eg as a table)

·      Number of culled animals per year/region

·      Estimation of financial losses/ per year/region

·      Which counteracting measures taken in the past would be considered as partially efficacious and which other would be suggested as of minimal or no efficacy.

·      The failure of biosecurity implementation in intensive farms (seen also elsewhere) and backyard farms,  would be helpful to be further analyzed/discussed.

 

 

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Particular typos have been highlighted as comments in the above-mentioned pdf file. Further check of English language is encouraged.

Author Response

Reviewer #1

Reviewer #1 African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious disease of pigs, and outbreaks

cause tremendous impact on global swine production. The presented review summarizes the

history and current situation of ASF in wild boars and domestic pigs in Poland. In general,

this manuscript is well written and the experience in ASF controlling is might be useful for

increase the knowledge and improvement of the control strategies against ASF.

Author GW: Many thanks for your kind and valuable support to improve our manuscript I

believe the changes introduced into the manuscript will meet your expectations. The changes

are marked in yellow.

Minor recommendations:

Reviewer #1: How is the population and density of domestic pigs and wild boars in Poland?

Author GW: The population of domestic pigs in Poland in 2023 was 8,3 mln of pigs

distributed in 50 thousand of pig farms. The average size of herd is 165 pigs. In case of wild

boar, the highest density over 2-4 wild boar per square km is in western Poland. The overall

estimated wild boar number is at the level of 67 thousand of wild boar. Additional comment

has been added in Introduction section line #83-86.

Reviewer #1: The authors are recommended to visualize the ASF outbreak events in Poland

using a map.

Author GW: Additional graphs showing number of ASF outbreaks in wild boar and domestic

pigs have been added. Additional map showing current epizootic situation in Poland during

2023 has been added.

Reviewer #1: The authors are suggested to discuss the global situation of ASF.

Author GW: The global situation has been discussed in introduction section between #67 and

#81 lines. Additional comments have been added also in lines#81-82.

Reviewer #1: Lines 52-55: Maintaining high standards of biosecurity measures including

disinfection may reduce many potential sources of infection Ticks of the genus Ornithodoros

in endemic areas have been shown to be a frequent vector of the virus, participating in its

transmission. Before the word “Ticks”, ending punctuation was missing.

Author GW: thank you for this remark an additional correction has been added.

Reviewer #1: Please confirm the description is correct or not in Lines 60-61: ASFV is rapidly

spreading across different parts of Europe and Asia as it has been confirmed in…

Author GW: This has been a misunderstanding. Additional corrections have been added in

lines #60-63.

Thank you for your valuable comments.

Reviewer #2

Reviewer #2: A manuscript describing the course of events as regards ASF transmission in

the last nine years in Poland. Parts of the manuscript are presented as a chronology and

especially for readers who are not aware of the country’s districts, it is quite difficult to follow

the route of transmission among prefectures, as well as the zones created. Comments and

corrections can be found in the attached pdf file. Moreover, particular information that should

be inserted includes:

Reviewer #2: Maps of the areas affected presenting the gradual outbreaks expansion in wild

and domestic population should be added.

Author GW: Additional maps showing evolution of ASFV spread in Poland have been added.

Additional graphs have been also presented. (Fig 1 and 2).

Reviewer #2: Selected tissues sampled and results would be also informative. Clinical signs

and necropsy findings which occurred predominantly (eg as a table)

Author GW: Additional figure showing the most important lesions in pigs have been added .

Due to the numerous outbreaks in pigs the exact presentation of clinical picture in all herds is

not possible.

Reviewer #2: Number of culled animals per year/region. Estimation of financial losses/ per

year/region

Author GW: These aspects are also difficult to estimate. Because of lack of direct database

from the General Veterinary Inspectorate.

Reviewer #2: Which counteracting measures taken in the past would be considered as

partially efficacious and which other would be suggested as of minimal or no efficacy.

Author GW: Additional measures have been discussed within the corrected paper.

Reviewer #2: Particular typos have been highlighted as comments in the above-mentioned pdf

file. Further check of English language is encouraged.\

Author GW: The manuscript has been proof-read by native speaking person. Thank you.

Reviewer #2: The failure of biosecurity implementation in intensive farms (seen also

elsewhere) and backyard farms, would be helpful to be further analyzed/discussed.

Author GW: The suggested issues have been also discussed within the corrected version.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I reviewed the manuscript. However, the problems with word choices, sentence structure, paragraph structure, grammar, and punctuation make the manuscript impossible to review.

There is good information in this paper, and it will be interesting to readers. But the manuscript needs a thorough editing and rewrite of many sections, particularly the introduction and discussion sections. These changes are necessary to make this a useful article for an international audience.

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

I reviewed the manuscript. However, the problems with word choices, sentence structure, paragraph structure, grammar, and punctuation make the manuscript impossible to review.

There is good information in this paper, and it will be interesting to readers. But the manuscript needs a thorough editing and rewrite of many sections, particularly the introduction and discussion sections. These changes are necessary to make this a useful article for an international audience.

Author Response

Reviewer #3

I reviewed the manuscript. However, the problems with word choices, sentence structure,

paragraph structure, grammar, and punctuation make the manuscript impossible to review.

There is good information in this paper, and it will be interesting to readers. But the

manuscript needs a thorough editing and rewrite of many sections, particularly the

introduction and discussion sections. These changes are necessary to make this a useful article

for an international audience.

Author GW: Dear Reviewer many thanks for your valuable remarks. The language issues

have been corrected in the current version of the manuscript.

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This version of the manuscript is much improved and is ready for the final review by the journal's editorial staff. The content is descriptive and very interesting.

I would advise checking the use of the term "outbreak" - do the authors mean "case".

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Good improvement

Back to TopTop