African swine fever outbreak exercise: evaluation

10. Annex B: Exercise Scenarios

Day 1 Scenario

A private veterinary surgeon (PVS) calls the Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) at 3 pm on Friday 31 January 2020 to report a suspect case of swine fever in a gilt weaning premise in Aberdeenshire. APHA decide to investigate and place verbal restrictions on the premise.

APHA initiate their report case procedures and notify the Veterinary Exotic Notifiable Diseases Unit (VENDU), APHA senior management and the Scottish Government of the ongoing consultation case. An APHA case vet and Animal Health Officer (AHO) are identified and dispatched to the premises within 30 minutes of the decision to investigate.

When arriving on site, the case vet confirms the restrictions verbally placed on the premises with the PVS and conducts an investigation. Following discussions with VENDU, the case vet is unable to negate the presence of notifiable disease and decides to take samples for swine fever. Both African swine fever and classical swine fever samples are taken and sent directly from the farm to the Pirbright Institute and APHA Weybridge labs respectively for testing.

Day 2

At 9 am on 01 February 2020, APHA receive another suspect swine fever report case from a gilt grower site in the central belt. The premises is part of the same pyramid structure as the first report case and has sent a consignment of pigs to slaughter on 31 January 2020 (Brechin Abattoir). The animals were slaughtered on 01 February 2020 and post-mortem examination showed a couple of carcasses suggestive of swine fever.

APHA undertake investigations at the source farm and the Scottish Government are updated. CVO Scotland convenes a CVO Case Conference, followed by an amber telecom, which brings together operational partners involved in the outbreak response. During the amber telecom, lab results are received and CVO Scotland confirms the first case of ASF in the country at the first premises, which is now referred to as infected premise 1 (IP1). The amber telecom now becomes a red telecom and next steps are discussed.

With disease being declared at IP1, a 3 km Protection Zone (PZ) and 10 km Surveillance Zone (SZ) are put in place. CVO Scotland gives permission to start culling animals at IP1.