African swine fever (ASF) is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease of pigs and wild boars. It presents a serious threat to pig production worldwide, and since 2007, ASF outbreaks have been recorded in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic States. In 2014, the disease was detected in Poland. ASF is on the list of notifiable diseases of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Due to the lack of an available vaccine and treatment, the countermeasures against the disease consist in early detection of the virus in the pig population and control of its spread through the elimination of herds affected by disease outbreaks. Knowledge of the potential vectors of the virus and its persistence in the environment is crucial to prevent further disease spread and to understand the new epidemiology for how it compares to the previous experience in Spain gathered in the 1970s and 1980s.

This study was conducted during June 2016 to May 2017, to determine the morphological characteristics of stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans L. ,and studying some ecological aspects. These studies of stable flies are being conducted for the first time in Iraq.The morphological diagnosis of Stomoxys calcitrans: Frontal vitta with black pollinose, yellow around ocellar triangle, parafrontalia golden, parafacialia grayish black. Thorax gray to yellowish pollinose, Pleura yellow; sternites dark brown to black, Legs black, Wing tinged smoky-brown. Abdomen gray to yellowish; dorsum with four brownish pollinose spots, at least 3 abdominal segments with a single median spot basally and pair of spots at apex of each segment. Female identical to male in color and structure except for wider frontal vitta, frontal triangle with golden pollinosity extending almost to frontal ridge, setae on head somewhat stouter than in male, Interocular space wide in females, narrower in males by about half the distance of separation in females. A total of 470 flies were collected in this study. The results showed, some variations of monthly abundance were determined during the study period, four different climatic seasons. In general, stable flies were found to be more abundant in the moderate climates period of the year. April was the highest abundance with 18.7%, while, no presence recorded in January and December. Some observations showed that stable flies were found in the field in different periods of the day, beginning from 06:00 to 18:00 hr.,but these are periods that are considered the peak of its presence of other seasons during the year. Both sexes of S. calcitrans showed the same peak of activity in the day108 nearly. The field observations showed that Stomoxys calcitrans adults attack many economic and domesticated animals in Basrah province.Cattle are the most, followed by buffaloes, dogs, horses, cats, camels, donkeys than sheep, goats and rabbits

Experiments reported here were directed at 2 questions: (1) Can the stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) tansmit enzootic bovine leukosis? (2) Could early viremia augment the probability of transmission by this insect? In one vector experiment, calves and bovine leukemia virus (BLV)-infected cows were housed with and without stable flies. The calves were monitored serologically during a 3-month postexposure period, using the agar gel immunodiffusion test. All fly-infested and fly-free calves remained BLV-seronegative. For a second vector experiment, donor calves, newly injected with blood from BLV-infected cows with high virus expression, were tethered alternately between uninoculated, weaned BLV-seronegative calves. These groups were housed with or without flies in 2 replicate trials. The inoculated calves from the first replicate seroconvert at 16 and 23 days after inoculation; the inoculated calves from the second replicate seroconverted at 11, 16, 16, and 37 days after inoculation. All uninoculated calves remained BLV-seronegative. In a manual transmission experiment, 50 unfed stable flies were allowed to complete a meal on each of 3 BLV-seronegative calves after feeding on a BLV-seropositive cow with high (42%) virus expression. One control calf was injected with blood from the cow. Seroconversion occurred in the control calf and 1 calf on which flies were given access. A scanning electron microscopic study was made of the everted and closed mouth parts of the stable fly. Given the lymphocyte count in blood from the cow used in the manual vector transmission experiment, it was calculated that 3,950 mouth part volumes would be necessary to transmit BLV. This estimate and our negative transmission results indicated that the stable fly is not a BLV vector of consequence.

attempts to transmit Anaplasma marginale to cattle with field collections of Hippobosca rufipes were unsuccessful, 1 of 3 attempts to transmit organism with Stomoxys calcitrans was successful