African swine fever screening in Porto Torres: a wild boar leg seized

The Sassari Local Health Authority has increased inspections at ports in the northern part of the island to mitigate the risk of African swine fever virus introduction into Sardinia. This morning, spot checks were conducted at the port of Porto Torres, where a leg of wild boar hunted in Piedmont was seized. The leg was kept in a cooler, a product at high risk of contamination. Once seized, it was sent to the Sardinian Zooprophylactic Institute for laboratory analysis. "This seizure demonstrates the importance of carrying out inspections. We must remember that wild boar meat is the most at risk, especially if it comes from Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna, regions where outbreaks of African swine fever in wild boars are currently being recorded. We cannot let our guard down," explains Francesco Sgarangella, Director of the Department of Veterinary Prevention of Northern Sardinia. At the maritime port, the staff of the Veterinary Services of the Sassari Local Health Authority and the molecular dogs of the Progetto Serena Onlus association worked to search for the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus when the vehicles disembarked from the ships.

The project, funded by the Sardinia Region and the ASF virus eradication project unit at the Sassari Local Health Authority, involves the Department of Veterinary Prevention of Northern Sardinia in screening incoming goods for pork or products potentially contaminated with the African swine fever virus. This is to safeguard the results achieved by the Region to date, which led to the island being declared African swine fever-free by the European Commission. "The risk of introducing genotype 2 to the island is not negligible," explains Francesco Sgarangella, Director of the Department of Veterinary Prevention of Northern Sardinia, "and therefore all necessary preventive measures must be implemented to minimize it. The project, called "AsfDog," involves random checks on passengers arriving at the island's main ports, using a specially trained human-dog team to identify pork or wild boar products." In addition to the staff of the Sassari Local Health Authority's Veterinary Services, the "human-dog teams" of the Progetto Serena Onlus association, the ports also include personnel from the Sardinian Sea Port Authority, the Coast Guard, the Border Police, the Guardia di Finanza, the Customs Agency, the Forestry and Environmental Protection Corps, and the Porto Torres Local Police.