Simulation exercise: African Swine Fever in United Kingdom


9 July to 17 September 2021


Dr. Christine Middlemiss, United Kingdom Chief Veterinary Officer, informed the OIE that an African Swine Fever (ASF) simulation tabletop exercise called “Exercise Holly” will be conducted over several sessions:


  • Introductory event/background to exercise – 9 July 2021.
  • Simulated Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) Case Conference to be held to discuss the emerging results from a notification of ASF suspicion – 16 July 2021.
  • Tabletop sessions with scenarios – 22 and 23 July 2021.
  • International stakeholder engagement and Lessons Identified exercise – 17 September 2021.



    • This is the same exercise that had been planned for November 2020 but was unfortunately postponed due to the outbreaks of avian influenza.

    The overarching objective is to exercise the government contingency plans and disease control strategies for a national outbreak of ASF, and thereby assess the current state of readiness. Preparations for animal health emergencies are paramount to achieve this state of readiness – and are perhaps even more important in the face of a global human pandemic.

    The United Kingdom will also seek to identify issues and potential improvements in policies, plans, instructions, procedures, and structures employed in their outbreak response that will help them to improve the way they manage any possible future outbreaks.



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    World Animal Health Information and Analysis Department
    World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
    [email protected]