Division 1

F1The appropriate Ministers shall ensure that appropriate clinical examinations, sampling and laboratory investigations are carried out in suspected holdings to confirm or exclude ASF, in accordance with the guidelines and procedures laid down in points 2 to 6.

Irrespective of the adoption of the measures referred to in Article 4(2) of Directive 2002/60/EC in the holding in question, these guidelines and procedures shall also apply in cases of disease whenever ASF is considered in the differential diagnosis. This will include occasions when the clinical signs and epidemiological pattern of disease that are observed in pigs suggest a very low probability of occurrence of ASF.

In all other cases where one or more pigs are suspected of being infected with the ASF virus, the measures referred to in Article 4(2) of Directive 2002/60/EC shall be adopted in the suspected holding in question.

In case of suspicion of ASF in pigs in a slaughterhouse or means of transport, the guidelines and procedures laid down in points 2 to 6 shall also apply mutatis mutandis.