ASF-STOP: progress and updates from the first year of COST Action “Understanding and combating African Swine Fever in Europe”

Resumen del trabajo presentado al 11th EPIZONE Annual Meeting: "Crossing barriers", celebrado en Paris (Francia) del 19 al 21 de septiembre de 2017.Combating and understanding African Swine Fever in Europe (ASF-STOP) is an interdisciplinary research network financed by the COST EU programme, which has as its main aim to stop African swine fever (ASF) from spreading further in Europe and protecting the European pig industry by combating ASF through a comprehensive, multi- and interdisciplinary approach. ASF-STOP started on 1st May 2016 and will end on 30th April 2020. ASF-STOP enables researchers to interact and collaborate on the multiple aspects related to ASF. The decision-taking body is the Management Committee (MC), formed by 1 or 2 representatives from each of the 29 participating COST countries. Five working groups (WG1: ASF virus, WG2: ASF in wild boar, WG3: ASF in domestic pigs-pig industry, WG4: ASF infection dynamics and control, WG5: integration of knowledge and communication of results), work towards the achievement of the scientific objectives. During its first year, ASF-STOP held: i. Website launch for the dissemination of Action activities (https://www.asf-stop.com). ii. International Launch conference, with eight scientific Sessions and including four invited speakers from USA, Canada, Uganda and Russia, in Pulawy, Poland. iii. Workshop “Advances in Vaccinology”, Pulawy, Poland. iv. Workshop ’Researchers link European industrial partners’, Pulawy, Poland. v. Working group meetings in: Pulawy, Poland (all WGs), Pirbright (England; WG1), Brescia (Italy; WG3), and Lisbon (Portugal; WG2-4). Five Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM) were conducted by young investigators and were hosted by expert centres/laboratories in various European countries. These were: “The role of wild boars in the dynamic of ASF spread among domestic swine in Sweden” (host: SVA, Sweden), “Study of Extracellular vesicles in the ASFV vector-host interface” (host: The Pirbright Institute, UK), “Further validation of alternative sampling methods for the passive swine fever surveillance in wild boar under field conditions” (host: Univ. of Life Science, Tartu, Estonia), “Application of fast molecular techniques for ASF virus detection” (host: Nat. Vet. Research Inst. Pulawy, Poland) and “Short training program on tools to census and monitor wild boar population status” (host: Spanish Wildlife Research Institute IREC, Spain). Dissemination activities included participation with a ASF-STOP Session at the Global ASF Research Alliance (GARA) Scientific Workshop in Ploufragan (France) in September 2016 and dissemination at the 12th European Wildlife Disease Association (EWDA) conference in Berlin (Germany) in August 2016. More information is presented in the Action’s website. During its first year, ASF-STOP fulfilled the COST Policy aims, with the following representation of participating countries: Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITCs): 46%, Early Career Investigators (ECIs): 19%, and Gender balance: 31% females in MC, 57% females in leadership roles. The presentation will summarise the main achievements towards the scientific, training and strategic objectives obtained during the first year of ASF-STOP.This abstract is based upon work from COST Action CA15116, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology.Peer reviewe