“ASF virus is very resistant to physical and chemical factors, this means it can stay infective for weeks or even months”

The resistance of the virus and the difficulties of decontamination are just two of the issues facing swine farms that are located in an area where the infection is known to be present, says Dr. Tomasz Trela, Boehringer Ingelheim's technical manager for swine in Central and Eastern Europe. Quite new for swine veterinarians is the situation where wild boar represent a huge reservoir of pathogens surrounding the farms. All potential carriers of the virus onto a farm must be considered.