ASF Poland: First farm outbreak in 2025

09:07 | |
Straw can be a entrance route for ASF virus to enter farms in Poland. Photo: Henk Riswick
Straw can be a entrance route for ASF virus to enter farms in Poland. Photo: Henk Riswick

As in every year, in summertime Poland starts to report outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) in commercial pig herds. The first case on a farm in 2025 was found on June 20, on a farm with 1,311 pigs, in the north of the country.

According to data from the Polish Chief Veterinary Inspectorate The farm is located near Luzino in Pomerania province, at about 50 km north west of port city Gdansk. 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.

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, this is the 553rd 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 current 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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ter Beek
Vincent ter Beek Editor of Pig Progress / Topic: Pigs around the world