African swine fever (ASF), the pig health challenge of the century

More than one hundred years ago African swine fever (ASF) was first diagnosed in Kenya. Since then, diverse approaches have been applied to the study of the causative virus, the sole member of the family Asfarviridae, aimed at characterising its properties, genome organisation and replication, its antigenic and biological properties as well as to develop treatment and a vaccine. The disease evolved and has persisted in Africa in a sylvatic cycle involving wild suids and soft ticks for a long time, but was introduced, usually through contaminated waste food, into other regions on multiple occasions since 1957. The most recent introduction, into Georgia in 2007, resulted in the spread of the disease to the European Union in 2014 and to the establishment of an international and multidisciplinary network of scientists funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) two years later. The network included a broad variety of scientific fields, animal health and food safety authorities, hunting associations, wildlife managers and food and livestock industries with the goal of increasing preparedness and attempting to stop ASF spread. This book represents the summary of the collective and integrated work of almost 300 dedicated participants in tackling the complex challenge posed by ASF. Here we summarise the state-of-the-art knowledge on this lethal disease, with a focus on the European situation, and identify areas that still need to be explored.