EU African swine fever outbreaks jumped in 2025, EFSA says

PARIS, May 21 - African swine fever outbreaks in the European Union rose sharply in 2025, increasing by 76 % in domestic pigs and 44 % in wild boar, as the disease reemerged in Spain after more than three decades, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said Thursday.

The disease is harmless to humans but can be fatal to pigs and wild boar and spreads rapidly. Outbreaks can lead to trade bans and movement restrictions.

• The EU recorded 585 ASF outbreaks in domestic pigs in the 27-member bloc in 2025, up 76 % from 2024, EFSA said in its latest annual epidemiological report.

• Wild boar outbreaks reached 11,036, up 44 % from the previous year and the highest since 2021.

• Despite the increase, EFSA said the average size of restricted areas in the EU remained broadly stable.

• Spain, the European Union's leading pork producer, detected the disease in November 2025 after more than 30 years without detections, raising the number of affected EU countries to 14.

• EFSA said Spain was one of two cases in 2025, along with Germany, where ASF appeared far from known infected areas, suggesting the virus had been carried over a long distance rather than spreading gradually through neighbouring regions.

• For Spain, the nearest known ASF outbreak was in northern Italy, around 700 km away. In Germany, the virus was detected in wild boar in North Rhine-Westphalia about 200 km from the nearest known case. The source of the introductions was not identified, EFSA said.

• The increase in ASF outbreaks in domestic pigs in 2025 was largely driven by Romania, which accounted for 81 % of all outbreaks that year, with additional increases reported in Croatia, Estonia and Latvia, EFSA said.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaidel; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 7:40 AM.