Italy culls more than 30,000 pigs to fight swine fever

Lombardy is the Italian region with the largest number of pigs raised. The outbreak appears to mark a worsening wave of the disease, first detected in Italy in 2022.

"Lombardy is home to half the pigs raised in Italy, about 5 million of Italy's 10 million pigs," a regional government spokesman said.

“Our goal is to contain this outbreak... so that the problem does not become a threat to the supply chain of the entire Italian sector,” the spokesman said, adding that the risk of further spread appears to have been averted for now.

African swine fever is harmless to humans, but is often fatal to pigs, resulting in financial losses for farmers. The virus originated in Africa and then spread to Europe and Asia, killing hundreds of millions of pigs around the world.

Since 2022, African swine fever in Italy has mainly affected wild boars, with the exception of a few isolated cases among pigs, said Francesco Feliziani, HEAD of the National Veterinary Center.