A spokesperson for the Lombardy region in northern Italy announced today, Wednesday, that about 34,000 pigs from 12 farms in the region have been culled to combat African swine fever. Lombardy is the Italian region with the largest number of farmed pigs. The outbreak appears to represent the peak of a wave of the disease first detected in Italy in 2022.
The spokesperson for the regional government stated, "Lombardy has half of the farmed pigs in Italy, about five million out of a total of ten million Italian pigs." He added, "Our goal is to extinguish this outbreak... so that the problem does not become a threat to the supply chain for the entire Italian sector," noting that the risk of further spread seems to have been mitigated for now.
African swine fever is harmless to humans but leads to the death of pigs, which can result in financial losses for farmers. Its origins trace back to Africa before spreading to Europe and Asia, leading to the death of hundreds of millions of pigs worldwide.
Francesco Filziani, head of the National Center for Swine Influenza, stated that since 2022, African swine fever in Italy has predominantly affected wild pigs, with only a few isolated cases reported.
