With the internationalization of the movement of both human and commodities, many animal diseases that were once considered endemic in certain local region are currently being reported as transboundary infectious diseases in many parts of the world. The recent outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) in Asia & Pacific region is a prime example: ASF spread rapidly to neighboring countries after the first outbreak was reported in China in 2018. Classical swine fever (CSF), foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), which are equally devastating in terms of economic losses as ASF, remain prevalent in Asia & Pacific region and are persistently being reported from various areas.

Investing in One Health – cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary coordination and collaboration across the human health, animal health, and environmental health sectors – is crucial for maintaining healthy agricultural and food systems and addressing global health security risks. Such action can reduce the threat of future pandemics through upstream preventive actions, early detection, and agile responses to zoonotic and emerging infectious diseases outbreaks, coupled with measures for promoting food safety, including anti-microbial resistance. This regional review, conducted jointly by the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, assesses the socioeconomic impacts of zoonotic diseases and epidemics across the East Asia and Pacific region, providing a background on why emerging infectious diseases are occurring more frequently in this region. This review looks at the benefits of using a risk-based approach, assesses the management of animal and wildlife health and the ability to identify and respond to emerging threats and protect the health, agricultural production, and ecosystem services. It provides recommendations on priority activities to be undertaken, and offers governments and their development partners the evidence and analysis needed to make more and better investments in wildlife systems and animal health to improve global health security.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly fatal infectious disease of domestic and wild pigs of all breeds and ages with no effective vaccine or treatment. The incursion of ASF into Asia and the Pacific region has been a major concern as the region is the major pig production area, which produces over 58 percent of pigs globally (FAOSTAT). The concerns, therefore, are growing for its impacts on food security and economics as the virus is expanding towards more areas and countries in the region. As the disease continues to expand into new territories, preparedness and control activities need to be constantly adjusted to adapt to situations observed in the field that may be contrary to what was expected based on international standards or experiences from other parts of the world. National veterinary services face challenges in these complex situations, and so regional and international support is needed to fill capacity gaps required for ASF control and to facilitate dialogue among key stakeholders. Through various regional and national consultation meetings, affected countries have requested technical support to make available relevant technical guidelines for ASF control that are practical especially for smallholder pig farmers in the context of Asia (SO5). This [Culling and disposal of pigs in an ASF outbreak] is the second of the series of the “Guidelines for African swine fever (ASF) prevention and control in smallholder pig farming in Asia” which provides guidance on planning and conducting pig culling and disposal operations in smallholder setting including other relevant actions, such as cleaning and disinfection of premises in the event of an ASF outbreak.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly fatal infectious disease of domestic and wild pigs of all breeds and ages with no effective vaccine or treatment. The incursion of ASF into Asia and the Pacific region has been a major concern as the region is the major pig production area, which produces over 58 percent of pigs globally (FAOSTAT). The concerns, therefore, are growing for its impacts on food security and economics as the virus is expanding towards more areas and countries in the region. As the disease continues to expand into new territories, preparedness and control activities need to be constantly adjusted to adapt to situations observed in the field that may be contrary to what was expected based on international standards or experiences from other parts of the world. National veterinary services face challenges in these complex situations, and so regional and international support is needed to fill capacity gaps required for ASF control and to facilitate dialogue among key stakeholders. Through various regional and national consultation meetings, affected countries have requested technical support to make available relevant technical guidelines for ASF control that are practical especially for smallholder pig farmers in the context of Asia (SO5). This Farm biosecurity, slaughtering and restocking] is the third of the series of the “Guidelines for African swine fever (ASF) prevention and control in smallholder pig farming in Asia” which guides biosecurity, slaughtering and restocking practice in smallholder pig farming system which are designed for use by national and/or central veterinary authorities, farmers and relevant stakeholders, especially focusing on Southeast Asian pig industry.

The purpose of document is to provide fact based overview of ASF ecology in the Northern and Eastern European populations of wild boar and briefly describe a range of practical management and biosecurity measures or interventions, which can help stockholders in the countries experiencing large scale epidemic of this exotic disease to address the problem in a more coherent, collaborative and comprehensive way. The handbook should not be viewed as an authoritative manual providing readymade solutions on how to eradicate ASF from wild boar. The facts, observations and approaches described in the document are presented with the intention to broadly inform veterinary authorities, wildlife conservation bodies, hunting community, farmers and general public about complexity of this novel disease and the need to wisely plan and carefully coordinate any efforts aiming at its prevention and control.