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The number of wild boars that fell victim to the African Swine Fever Virus (ASFv) in Germany has exceeded 1,000. In an update by the German authorities, the number is now 1,016.
The first outbreak of the virus in wild boars occurred in September 2020 in the Spree-Neisse district, which borders directly on the Polish border. Since then it has spread to 4 zones in 6 districts in 2 federal states, Brandenburg and Saxony. Table 1 shows where all cases have been found so far.
Combat ASF outbreaks with fences
Germany is trying to fight the outbreaks by building permanent fences along the border rivers Oder and Neisse that separates Germany from Poland. In addition, Germany is creating so-called white zones around the infected zones, in which all wild boars are shot. So the virus cannot escape.
Last week the European Union pledged 9 million euros to Germany. This money is used in Brandenburg and Saxony, for example, to cover the costs of building permanent fences.
Ongoing talks about trade bans with China
In the meantime, Germany is trying to convince China to reopen its borders for pork from the other German federal states, as there is no ASFv in any of the other federal states. Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner and her Chinese counterpart Tang Renjian recently held a video conference for this purpose.
German agricultural title Top agriculture reported that Klöckner stated that the domestic pig population was still ASF-free and that the outbreak was locally limited in 2 federal states, only in wild boars. According to Klöckner, Germany is making considerable efforts under high pressure in the areas of biosecurity, education, hunting, testing and fencing. Both ministers agreed to hold concrete discussions on the ARSP at expert level in both countries as soon as possible.
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