Surveillance and control of classical swine fever in Bulgaria, a country with a high proportion of non-professional pig holdings

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. Bulgaria has about 60 000 non-professional holdings in which 34% of the domestic pig population are kept. 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). Once the holdings were categorized, adequate CSF surveillance programmes manageable by the local and central veterinary service, could be designed for the different types of holdings. Additional tools including the electronic identification system for holdings and pigs and a check-list for clinical examinations were introduced to facilitate the surveillance activities. In this communication the categorization of farms is presented as a successful tool for CSF surveillance and control in different categories of pig holdings. Under conditions like in Bulgaria categorization of farms appeared to be also a reliable method for improving the biosecurity level and an essential tool for CSF surveillance and control in non-professional pig holdings.