Surveillance And Control Of Classical Swine Fever (Csf) In Bulgaria

Control and eradication of classical swine fever (CSF) in countries with a high proportion of non-professional pig holdings poses additional challenges for the veterinary services since such holdings may act as a reservoir for CSF virus and as possible source of infection for commercial farms. At the end of 2009 Bulgaria has about 60 000 non-professional holdings in which 34 % of the domestic pig population are kept. At the end of 2005 Bulgaria stopped the CSF prophylactic vaccination in domestic pigs. Bulgaria started in 2007 a new strategy for surveillance and control of CSF, based on the categorization of pig holdings according to their biosecurity standard. Basically three categories of holdings where identified: (i) holdings with high or appropriate biosecurity measures comprising large industrial farms or smaller family farms involved in trade, (ii) holdings with low or no biosecurity measures comprising smaller family farms involved in local trade and back yard farms and (iii) traditional outdoor pig herds (East Balkan Pigs).