African Swine Fever (ASF)

Dear Colleagues,

Internationally, African swine fever (ASF) is considered as one of the most dangerous animal diseases of pigs. The disease is affecting trade and has a serious socio-economic impact on people's livelihood. No drugs or vaccines are available to fight ASF. The most severe epidemic ever experienced outside of the African continent started in Georgia in 2007, spread throughout the Caucasus and the Russian Federation, eventually reaching the European Union and China. In many countries, the disease has become endemic in domestic pigs and wild boar. In wild boar populations, ASF shows a pattern of habitat bound persistence lacking a tendency of dynamic spatial spread. 

Humans are recognized as the main cause of both long-distance transmission and virus introduction into domestic pig farms. Thus, it has become crucial to include social science when planning prevention-, control-, or eradication-measures. By focusing only on the biological particularities of the disease (for example, the contagiosity, tenacity, and case fatality rate), but ignoring the human aspects, the epidemic will not be controlled.

In this Special Issue, we intend to focus on the ASF field epidemiology in order to explore our understanding of ASF transmission, spread, and contagiosity in domestic pig farms and wild boar populations. We call on researchers to contribute their recent findings, especially focusing on, but not limited to, the following:

• Epidemiological field investigations
• Disease control and management
• Biosecurity
• Host–pathogen interaction
• Transmission studies
• Socio-economic drivers and impacts
• Modelling
• ASF epidemiology in the back yard sector

Papers in the form of case reports are also welcome.

Dr. Klaus Robert Depner
Dr. Karl Ståhl
Prof. Dr. Arvo Viltrop
Guest Editors

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