New laws for control of ASF in England

After a wait of over two years, last week Defra finally published its amendments to the ASF control regulations for England.

The Diseases of Swine Regulation (2014) set out how England and Wales would respond to outbreaks of African swine fever, classical swine fever and swine vesicular disease.

Due to increasing devolution since Brexit, the newly-published amendments apply only to England, although the Welsh Government is working to update the legislation to align with England, as will the Scottish Government and Daera in Northern Ireland.

The aim of these amendments is to bring the UK into line with the EU, which will be beneficial for trade should we get a case of any of these diseases.

The amendments contain a lot of new rules, and while this might sound like a negative, in fact they clarify several issues which the NPA has been working on for some time. It is essential that in the case of an outbreak of ASF, everyone understands what is required, which has not always been the case. For example, for the first time this legislation provides us with more details on cleansing and disinfection requirements, as well as more detailed control measures for ASF in feral wild boar.

Below is an example of the areas which have been newly added:

• new requirements as to the cleansing, disinfection and treatment of premises and vehicles
• a new process for the designation of premises in England as ‘infected premises’ and for the revocation of such designations
• updates to the process for restocking infected premises and contact premises in England with sentinel pigs
• provision about emergency vaccination of feral pigs in England against classical swine fever and African swine fever
• specific details on disease control zones, including the addition of Restricted Zones and Feral Pig Control Zones
• specific information on what tracing data is required in the case of an outbreak on farm.

We recommend that producers keep detailed records of movements for pigs, people, machinery and others on and off their units. In the case of an ASF outbreak, APHA will require this information for at least 15 days of movements before the disease is reported.

It is therefore best practice to develop a digital system for recording such movements, which will be easier and less stressful than trying to collate this information if you are under restrictions for disease. For more information on what the new rules require, you can read our briefing here.

We will shortly be updating our ASF: What you need to know document with the new inclusions, so do keep your eyes peeled for its publication. We are also expecting the publication of a more user-friendly guidance document from Defra in the coming weeks.