Classical swine fever virus is new to Europe, say scientists
The five cases of classical swine fever that have been identified in East Anglia, UK are a new strain introduced to Europe, experts have concluded. While part of the same family of viruses that caused three outbreaks of swine fever in Europe in the past seven years, the virus has been isolated by both EU and UK sources as a different strain to the previous ones. Scientists from both the Institute of virology of the school of veterinary medicine in Hannover, Germany (the Community reference laboratory for classical swine fever) and the UK national laboratory at Weybridge, concluded that the strain came from subgroup 2.1. But they could not match its specific statistics to any of the previous viruses isolated in the European Union. Subgroup 2.1 viruses were found in Vienna in 1993, Switzerland in 1994 and in the epidemic which affected Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain in 1997. But all of these strains were different to the UK version. The UK Agriculture ministry reacted to the outbreak by extending the ban on selling or transporting pigs to other UK counties while it makes checks on farms suspected of being infected. On Friday, it also announced the results of the first tests carried out on three farms which had reported symptoms among its herds. As two out of the three farms were outside East Anglia, the ministry said it was pleased that all three had been given the all clear. The UK government is placing restrictions around all farms reporting symptoms, including farms, farmers and stock. 'This is a normal part of procedure and shows if anything that the system is working well,' said a Community spokesperson. In a separate development, the European Commission has decided to provide 1.75 million euro in aid to Germany (in addition to the seven million euro it has already received) to contribute to the country's spending on efforts to eradicate the classical swine fever epidemic which affected the country in 1997.