Active surveillance of African swine fever in domestic swine herds in Georgia, 2014.

Since its introduction to the Republic of Georgia in 2007, African swine fever virus (ASFV) has spread across the Caucasus region, the Russian Federation, and some Eastern European countries. It is assumed that large populations of naïve, domestic, free-ranging and wild pigs are vital to the transmission of the disease. Since its epidemic emergence in the region in 2007, ASFV has continued to circulate, which suggests that an endemic cycle has been established and is maintained by contact between free-ranging domestic pigs, wild pigs, and possibly native Ornithodoros ticks, the most likely reservoirs for the virus.

Implementation of a Regional Training Program on African Swine Fever As Part of the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program across the Caucasus Region.

A training and outreach program to increase public awareness of African swine fever (ASF) was implemented by Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Ministries of Agriculture in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. The implementing agency was the company SAFOSO (Switzerland). Integration of this regional effort was administered by subject matter experts for each country.