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Review
. 2017 Jan 28;180(4):97.
doi: 10.1136/vr.103992. Epub 2016 Nov 15.

Effectiveness and practicality of control strategies for African swine fever: what do we really know?

C Guinat  1 , T Vergne  1 , C Jurado-Diaz  2 , J M Sánchez-Vizcaíno  2 , L Dixon  3 , D U Pfeiffer  1
Affiliations
Review

Effectiveness and practicality of control strategies for African swine fever: what do we really know?

C Guinat et al. Vet Rec. .

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a major pig health problem, and the causative virus is moving closer to Western European regions where pig density is high. Stopping or slowing down the spread of ASF requires mitigation strategies that are both effective and practical. Based on the elicitation of ASF expert opinion, this study identified surveillance and intervention strategies for ASF that are perceived as the most effective by providing the best combination between effectiveness and practicality. Among the 20 surveillance strategies that were identified, passive surveillance of wild boar and syndromic surveillance of pig mortality were considered to be the most effective surveillance strategies for controlling ASF virus spread. Among the 22 intervention strategies that were identified, culling of all infected herds and movement bans for neighbouring herds were regarded as the most effective intervention strategies. Active surveillance and carcase removal in wild boar populations were rated as the most effective surveillance and intervention strategies, but were also considered to be the least practical, suggesting that more research is needed to develop more effective methods for controlling ASF in wild boar populations.

Keywords: African swine fever; Best-worst scaling; control strategies; expert elicitation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

FIG 1:
FIG 1:
Zero-centred scatterplot of effectiveness and practicality scores for the 20 surveillance strategies for African swine fever. The level of agreement among respondents was strong (W=0.382) and moderate (W=0.342) with respect to the effectiveness and practicality of the surveillance strategies, respectively. The plot shows that 10 strategies are scored above average for both effectiveness and practicality (those located in the upper-right quadrant) and are therefore considered to be optimal for surveillance (Table 3)
FIG 2:
FIG 2:
Zero-centred scatterplot of effectiveness and practicality scores for the 22 intervention strategies for African swine fever. The level of agreement among respondents was weak with respect to both the effectiveness (W=0.216) and practicality (W=0.136) of the intervention strategies. The figure shows that 10 strategies are scored above average both for effectiveness and practicality (those located in the upper-right quadrant) and are therefore considered to be optimal for intervention (Table 3)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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