African swine fever has been spreading in Central and Eastern Europe since 2014 taking on dramatic proportions. In Ukraine, the ASF acquired the nation-wide challenge which requires scientifically grounded measures aimed at preventing the spread of this disease and support from the European community.
“One of the main reasons for the situation is the unavailability of an independent reference laboratory on ASF”, said the director of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Veterinary Sciences, Professor, Associate Member of the NAAS Serhiy Nychyk during his talk at the European Parliament conference “African Swine Fever – soon all over Europe?” that was held on June 19, 2018 in Brussels, Belgium.
In addition to the MEPs, the following speakers were invited to the conference: Krzysztof Hetman member of the EU Parliament, Czesław Siekierski, the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Bernard van Goethem, Institution European Commission Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, professor José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno, Department of Animal Health, University of Madrid, expert on ASF, Sławomir Sosnowski, the Marshal of the Lubelskie Voivodeship, Jan Prandota, former Director of Veterinary and Food Safety Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Marek Sulima, representative of farmers in the Lublin region of Poland.
During the conference professor Serhiy Nychyk presented the talk “African swine fever in Ukraine: the state and ways of eradication”, where he pointed on the priority directions for solving this issue, which were harmonization of the legislative base of Ukraine and the EU in the field of biosecurity, biosafety and animal health protection, an independent reference laboratory on the basis of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine for the development of scientifically based measures to combat ASF, in-depth study of the pathogen, analysis and disease outbreaks prediction. “An important element of efforts effectiveness is the complete independence of the reference laboratory from the impact of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection and the engagement of leading European experts on ASF from Germany, Spain and Poland as independent experts”, Serhiy Nychyk emphasized.
Discussions were held with the deputies of the European Parliament on possible assistance from the EU on monitoring, prediction and ensuring the epizootic stability of Ukraine concerning ASF. The speakers also emphasized that the requirements for Ukraine regarding animal health and safety of livestock products should be the same as for EU member states and the inadmissibility of silencing and concealing the problem state in Ukraine and the countries of Eastern Europe regarding this disease.
The participants of the conference agreed that in case of creating of the reference laboratory on ASF in Ukraine, experts from Poland, Spain and Germany should take part in its work as independent experts. It is also necessary to create a roadmap for ASF control in Ukraine.
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