ASF is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and Sardinia (island Figure 2: Method for identification of terms for monitoring the web in Italy); however, in 2007 ASF appeared for the first time in the Caucasus region in Europe and in the following years infected several eastern European countries, including in 2014 several Baltic countries.
there is a risk of spread of ASF towards other western and southern European countries (Sánchez-Vizcaíno et al., 2013).