The updated figures were provided by Serbian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Dragan Glamočić in an interview with Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).
According to him, ASF has already affected seven districts, 13 municipalities and 62 towns and villages across the country. In total, the infection has been recorded on 930 farms.
The official figure of 36,632 animals includes both pigs that died directly from the disease and those that had to be culled as part of outbreak-control measures. The ministry reports these figures together, making it impossible to determine separately how many animals died from the virus and how many were preventively culled.
Losses Increased by 8.2% in 17 Days
On 30 July, the minister reported 33,850 pigs dead or culled.
Since then, losses have increased by 2,782 head, or approximately 8.2%. On average, Serbia lost around 164 pigs per day during this period.
At the same time, according to Glamočić, the epidemiological situation has stabilised somewhat recently. Over the past week, new cases have been reported mostly sporadically.
However, the minister stressed that there is no reason to ease control measures.
The scale of the disease’s spread shows that the problem is no longer limited to individual large farms. Nearly 1,000 infected holdings require veterinary surveillance, restrictions on animal movements, disinfection and, when ASF is confirmed, culling of the herd.
One Major Outbreak Accounted for Nearly a Third of All Losses
The largest single outbreak in Serbia this year occurred on 9 July at the Mistral Komerc farm in Hrtkovci.
After ASF was confirmed, the culling of more than 11,000 pigs began.
This means that a single farm accounts for around 30% of all pigs reported dead or culled due to ASF in Serbia since the beginning of the year.
At the same time, a significant share of the remaining cases is spread across a large number of farms in different settlements. This complicates disease control, as authorities must simultaneously monitor hundreds of premises and control animal movements between them.
The consequences are particularly severe for small-scale producers, for whom the loss of even a relatively small herd can mean losing their main source of income.
PigUA.info, based on materials from srpske.rs