SUMMARYAfrican swine fever (ASF) is a notifiable infectious disease, caused by the ASF virus (ASFV), which is a DNA virus belonging to the family Asfarviridae, genus Asfivirus. This disease has gained importance in the last decade after its spread in several countries in Eastern and Central Europe, and more recently, in China. Despite the efforts made to eradicate it, ASF is still present on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia (Italy) and has been since 1978. ASF risk factors on the island have been analysed in previous studies; the role of free‐ranging pigs in virus persistence has been suggested, but has not been fully elucidated. The most recent eradication plan provides more stringent measures to combat free‐ranging pigs and any kind of illegality in the pig sector. From December 2017 to June 2018, a total of 29 depopulation actions were performed in 13 municipalities in central Sardinia, during which 2,281 free‐ranging pigs were culled and more than 50% of them were tested for ASFV and antibody presence (1,218 and 1,416, respectively). A total of 651 pigs were seropositive, with a mean seroprevalence of 53.4% (CI 95% = 50.6–56.3), and 38 were ASFV positive (virus prevalence = 2.6%; CI 95% = 2.1–3.0). To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to provide a complete evaluation of this millennial system of pig farming and ASFV prevalence in free‐ranging pigs. Furthermore, it has emphasised the necessity of combining the maintenance of an epidemiological surveillance program with continuous education of farmers and other people involved in pig husbandry, based on cultural and economic aspects.

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BackgroundThere is a general consensus in recognizing that traditional meat inspection is no longer able to address the hazards related to meat consumption. Moreover, it has been shown that invasive procedures, such as palpation and incision, can increase microbial contamination in carcasses. For these reasons, legislations all over the world are changing meat inspection techniques, moving towards visual-only techniques. Hence, there was also the need to test visual-only inspection in pigs in Italy.ResultsA protocol for visual-only post-mortem inspection was produced together with a 24-class scheme used to record pathological lesions. A list of guidelines needed for univocal interpretation and classification of lesions was developed. To record lesions at the slaughtering line, a light instrument that is resistant to the slaughter environment was designed and then produced in collaboration with an electro-medical company. Six contracted veterinarians were chosen and trained. They performed visual-only post-mortem inspections on 231.673 heavy pigs in three different slaughterhouses of Northern Italy. Visual-only inspection was compared to traditional inspection on 38.819 pig carcasses. No relevant differences were found between the two systems.ConclusionsThe comparison between traditional and visual-only inspection showed that visual-only inspection can be adopted in pig slaughterhouse. The analysis of the performance of the veterinarians stressed the importance of standardization and continuous education for veterinarians working in this field.

Between June and September 2010, widespread Italian consumer reports of unusual blue spoilage on fresh dairy products were publicized, resulting in the so-called blue mozzarella event. An inordinately high number of samples from mozzarella and whey cheese products of Italian and German production subsequently tested positive for Pseudomonas fluorescens. The aim of this study was to verify whether a selected P. fluorescens strain was responsible for this apparently unusual event. Molecular characterization of 181 isolated P. fluorescens strains was conducted using a newly optimized pulsed-field gel electrophoresis protocol. Although a high number of pulsotypes was found (132), only four pulsotypes were associated with more than one production plant, and only one German isolate had the same pulsotype as was detected in two Italian plants. This is the only evidence of possible cross-contamination among cheeses from the two countries. The overall results did not support the spread of contamination from German to Italian plants or the presence of one environmental strain that spread in both countries.

Data on antimicrobial use (AMU) in heavy pig production (>150 kg) are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the AMU in this production. Data from 2015 were collected for 143 fattening farms. The AMU was estimated through a treatment index per 100 days (TI100) using the defined daily dose animal for Italy (DDDAit). When possible, a comparison with the European Medicines Agency’s defined daily doses for animals (DDDvet) was performed. The median TI100 was 10.7 (range, 0.2–49.5). Group treatments represented 94.6% of overall consumption. The AMU calculated using DDDAit and DDDvet were strongly correlated (ρ = 0.976; p < 0.001). The AMU was negatively correlated with injectables use (ρ = −0.46, p < 0.001) and positively correlated with oral products (ρ = 0.21, p = 0.014), premixes (ρ = 0.26, p = 0.002), and mortality (ρ = 0.18; p = 0.027). Farm size was negatively correlated with AMU (ρ = −0.29, p < 0.001). Smaller farms were more frequently above the median TI100 (odds ratio = 2.3, 95% confidence interval = 1.2–4.7), suggesting that they may have lower biosecurity and management standards. The results of this study should provide useful insights for the development of an Italian monitoring system.