Searching for the term “African swine fever” (ASF) in the title of publications in the Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus during the period of 1955–2020 resulted in an average of 2009 detected articles. This shows that the scientific interest in ASF is consistently high. This is certainly due to the ongoing global spread of ASF and the knowledge gaps that still exist [1]. After the successful elimination of ASF from the Iberian Peninsula in 1995, ASF almost disappeared from the European continent [2]. However, the disease has been endemic in Sardinia since 1978, despite several attempted elimination programs. It has been hypothesized that mainly social structures and traditions, like the keeping of free-ranging pigs, and slaughters for self-consumption, pose a significant risk for the presence of ASF on the island and decrease the effectiveness of standard control measures [3]. However, there is hope that the disease is close to eradication now. Since 2007, when ASF emerged in Georgia, the disease has been spreading constantly, affecting eleven countries of the European Union to date. Although domestic pig holdings are also regularly affected, most infections occur in wild boar [4]. However, several studies have shown that an infected wild boar population in close vicinity to domestic pig farms poses a risk of transmitting the disease into domestic pig holdings, in particular backyard holdings [5,6,7]. Due to these findings and to the potential enormous economic consequences that an ASF outbreak entails, it is vital to increase the current knowledge on ASF to fight the disease more efficiently.
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