ASF Poland: First farm outbreaks in 2025
As in every year, in summertime Poland starts to report outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) in commercial pig herds. The first cases on a farm in 2025 were found this week, with farms in the north and the east of the country.
According to data from the Polish Chief Veterinary Inspectorate the first farm in 2025 was located near Luzino in Pomerania province, at about 50 km north west of port city Gdansk. It had 1,311 animals on-site. It is the third farm outbreak in Pomerania province – the first 2 occurred in 2024. It is not unexpected that the first farm outbreak takes place in this region. In the area around Gdansk, the majority of the 2025 infections in wild boar were found.
The authorities also mentioned a 2nd outbreak, in a backyard farm with 58 animals, near the town Janów Podlaski. This village is only a few km from the border with Belarus.
Spike of ASF infections in summer
Ever since the virus entered Poland in 2014, there has been a spike of infections in Poland in the summer months, most likely due to hay and straw being trucked in for pigs. This might pose a biosecurity problem due to fomites being among them. In the whole of Poland, this year now 2,322 wild boar have been found infected. Every year, the tally is around 3,000 to 4,000.
It is relatively late in the season for the first Polish pig farm to be reported infected. In previous years, the wave of infections could be seen as from early June. In 2024, in total, there were 44 farms infected with ASF in the whole of Poland. The worst year in this respect was 2021, when 124 farms got infected. On the whole, these are the 553rd and 554th farm to be infected with ASF – that number includes large commercial facilities to small backyard farm sites.
In the context of 11 years of ASF, the farm’s size of 1,311 pigs is not extreme. Since 2014 there have been 35 infected Polish farms that were larger when the virus emerged. The largest farm that ever got infected in Poland had 23,631 pigs on-site.
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