Let us remind you: the first ASF outbreak in the Gniezno district was confirmed on July 4 in the town of Ujazd (Kiszkowo commune). There were 52 pigs in the infected herd. Due to the occurrence of the disease, preventive liquidation of herds of animals residing in the zone with a radius of one kilometer from the ASF outbreak was ordered. A total of 16 herds were intended for extermination:
– Preventive killing is carried out to break the chain of virus transmission. The decision to introduce it in the Kiszkowo commune was influenced, among other things, by the high density of pig production in the region. In the town of Ujazd itself (with approximately 150 inhabitants – editor's note), where the first outbreak of ASF broke out, 13 herds were targeted for liquidation. Together with the Provincial Veterinary Inspectorate in Poznań and the Chief Veterinary Inspectorate, we decided to introduce it. However, after killing four herds, we received an order to suspend our activities, says Dariusz Nowaczyk, district veterinarian in Gniezno.
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Over 100 new ASF outbreaks in wild boars
As our interlocutor said, the herds in which preventive slaughter was carried out numbered from 50 to about 500 pigs.
As it turned out, the decision to take such drastic steps was right, but stopping it was not necessarily the case. Shortly after the suspension of activities, it turned out that a second outbreak of plague was confirmed in one of the herds intended for liquidation.
Will the outbreak of another outbreak cause the culling of herds to resume?
– This is a question not for me, but for the superior authorities that issued the decision to suspend the activities – said Dariusz Nowaczyk.
There is also no information on this subject from the Provincial Veterinary Inspectorate in Poznań. As Tomasz Wielich, Provincial Veterinary Inspector for Animal Health and Protection, told us, everything depends on the further course of the situation in the region, which is currently very dynamic. The positive news is that in another herd where there was a suspected outbreak, the laboratory results were negative.
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We have four new ASF outbreaks. Most occurred in Greater Poland
How did ASF reach the Gniezno district?
So far, the Gniezno district has been an ASF-free area. There have been no outbreaks in wild boars or pigs. As Dariusz Nowaczyk says, at the moment it is impossible to determine how the virus entered the poviat, but the outbreaks of the disease occurring in the neighboring Poznań poviat are certainly important:
– In Poznań alone, several outbreaks in wild boar herds are confirmed every week. It is known that residents of our district travel to the capital of the voivodeship, even for work purposes, so it cannot be ruled out that the virus could have been transported on the wheels of vehicles – says Dariusz Nowaczyk.
Pig production in the Gniezno district
Gniezno County, like other regions of Greater Poland, is an area of large-scale pig production. According to ARiMR data, at the end of 2023 it held nearly 110,000. pigs, which placed this region in 14th place among the counties with the largest number of kept animals.
According to data from the Central Statistical Office from December 2023, over 2.8 million pigs were kept in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, which constituted nearly 30%. national pig population.
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ASF outbreak in a new district! They kill pigs from 16 farms
