OAHN Swine Network Project: CanSpot ASF Submissions and Communications

Project Lead: Suzanne Conquer

Collaborators: Tim Pasma, Jim Fairles, Tim Blackwell

Executive Summary

Surveillance of African swine fever (ASF) is considered a high priority to detect ASF incursions as early as possible.  This will allow for a rapid and early response which will help to protect the swine sector from the adverse effects of ASF spread on population and trade.  CanSpot ASF is the overarching surveillance system for ASF for the swine sector in Canada. In domestic pigs, it is important to capture both commercial and small holder populations in surveillance.

The Animal Health Laboratory (AHL) is the only approved laboratory in Ontario and has been conducting rule-out testing for ASF since August 2020.  Since then, the uptake in program has been quite low with a discrepancy between the number of eligible swine pathology cases submitted and number of spleens included for rule-out ASF testing.

Communication is a critical part of any surveillance initiative, including CanSpot ASF. As such, this project focused on the development of an infographic and tag line “make spleen routine”  to:

• Increase number of submissions with veterinary and producer consent for AHL testing
• Improve information on submissions (including location data)
• increase the number of spleen samples currently being submitted for ASF rule-out testing.

View the Info Sheet here: https://www.oahn.ca/resources/infosheet-make-spleen-routine/