Cases of African swine fever across European Union member nations climbed dramatically in 2025, with domestic pig infections rising 76% and wild boar cases increasing 44%, according to Thursday’s announcement from the European Food Safety Authority.
While the disease poses no threat to human health, it can kill pigs and wild boar quickly and transmits easily between animals. When outbreaks occur, countries often impose trading restrictions and limit animal movement.
The European Food Safety Authority’s newest yearly disease tracking report showed 585 cases in domestic pigs across the 27 EU countries during 2025, representing a 76% jump from 2024 figures.
Wild boar infections totaled 11,036 cases, marking a 44% increase from the year before and reaching the highest levels recorded since 2021.
Even with the rising case numbers, the European Food Safety Authority noted that quarantine zone sizes across the EU stayed relatively unchanged.
Spain, which leads European Union pork production, identified the disease in November 2025 following more than 30 years without any confirmed cases, pushing the count of impacted EU nations to 14.
According to the European Food Safety Authority, Spain represented one of two instances in 2025, alongside Germany, where the fever surfaced far from previously known infection zones, indicating the virus traveled long distances instead of gradually moving through adjacent areas.
In Spain’s case, the closest confirmed outbreak had occurred in northern Italy, approximately 700 kilometers away. German authorities found the virus in wild boar in North Rhine-Westphalia, roughly 200 kilometers from the nearest previous case. The European Food Safety Authority stated that officials could not determine how the virus arrived in either location.
Romania drove much of the 2025 surge in domestic pig cases, representing 81% of all outbreaks that year, while Croatia, Estonia and Latvia also reported growing case numbers, the European Food Safety Authority reported.
