20th update on African swine fever activities at FAO

GLOBAL

The GF-TADs virtual meeting “Stop ASF: Public and private partnering for success” took place virtually on 21-28 June. Over 1,300 participants from 132 countries representing the public and the private sectors registered to the global event.
FAO and OIE produced jointly an animation on the risk of using illegal ASF vaccines.
FAO just published the third edition of the "Good emergency management practice - The essentials - A guide to preparing for animal health emergencies".
The report on the October 2020 webinar on ASF "An unprecedented global threat - A challenge to livelihoods , food security and biodiversity - Call for action", jointly organized by FAO and OIE is now available online.
FAO’s “Carcass management guidelines - Effective disposal of animal carcasses and contaminated materials on small to medium-sized farms” is now also available in most official languages: Arab, Russian, French and Spanish.
The online Course on ASF Preparedness was chosen as a FAO good practice to be shared globally. The 4-week tutored course developed by the FAO Regional Office for Europe has been adapted, translated and replicated in the Asia-Pacific and America regions last year, reaching and certifying hundreds of veterinarians all over the globe.

The FAO certified online course on ASF preparedness will be offered to Canadian veterinarians in September-October 2021 in both English and French, following its adaptation.

The ASF situation in Asia & Pacific update, updated every two weeks, covers the situation by country, actions taken (by countries and FAO), and recommendations and useful links.
The animation video on farm biosecurity (Be a champion farmer) is available 12 languages (English, Khmer, Lao, Vietnamese, Burmese, Balinese, Batak, Bahasa, Kupang, Nepali, Malay, Iban Sarawak).
FAO and OIE, with technical inputs from the GFTADs SGE-ASF Asia Pacific created awareness materials:
- There is no ASF vaccine yet: e-cards on biosecurity (card1, card2, card3, card4, card5, card6, card7).
- ASF kills pigs animation as full version and short version for social media.
Under SGE-ASF Asia-Pacific, FAO and OIE are establishing expert groups:
- Epi group to revisit 1) available surveillance guideline to cover atypical strain circulation in the region; and 2) knowledge and roles of wild pig and native pig (1st expert consultation on 18 May)
- Lab group: 1) Meeting organised on 24 June; and 2) Reference labs are revising ASF laboratory protocols and algorithms to include detection of atypical strains.

The 17th meeting of the Standing Group of Experts on ASF (SGE ASF17) in Europe too place on 4 June. Presentations and recommendations are available online. These meetings take place under the GF-TADs umbrella, a joint mechanism of FAO and OIE.
A presentation on the FAO activities on ASF in Europe is now available online: simulation exercises, training for hunters, assessment of ASF risk at hunting grounds, etc.
The online training on ASF preparedness was used as a key example at the "FAO Webinar COVID-19 response and digitalization in Europe and Central Asia" held on 27 May. You can check it out at 1:46:00 of this YouTube video.