ASF Germany: Number of infected wild boars exceeds 3,000

This number results from the reports from the authorities of the various infected federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. A further 257 carcasses tested positive for African swine fever (ASF) virus in the 3 countries bordering Poland.

The Interactive pig progress The map below shows the spread of the virus in wild boar in the cluster on the German-Polish border on 12/30/2021

Zooming out, the general picture is that most of the eruptions occurred relatively close to the border with Poland, with two major exceptions. In Saxony, since October this year, a series of outbreaks have been detected north of the city of Dresden in an area about 80 km inland in the district of Meissen. This prompted the local authorities to set up and already expanding a new core zone there, with fences to ideally block the further movement of (infected) wild boar. So far, 18 infected victims have been located there.

Something similar happened in northern Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, about 80-85 km south of Rostock. So far, 7 wild boar carcasses have been found in this area, the last of which happened on April 2^nd December. This zone is about 150 km west of the border with Poland.

Complication of ASF control strategy

These 2 outbreaks away from the Polish border together complicate the German strategy to build a border corridor against the influx of ASF-positive wild boar. Once the situation behind the border was under control, the corridor with double fences should have protected the country from disease pressure from Poland.

ASF on pig farms in Germany

In 2021, a total of 4 farms were infected with ASF in Germany. Three of them in the state of Brandenburg were relatively small, but the 4th^th, an apparently isolated case in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, had almost 4,000 pigs on site in mid-November.

ASF situation in western Poland

Across the border, in western Poland, the cluster spreads out in practically every direction. Where the first outbreaks took place in November 2019 in a village called Tarnów Jezierny in the eastern province of Lubusz, the greatest viral activity is now happening in a wide radius around that original location. That means outbreaks are in the north, along the border with Germany, about 30 km from the city of Szczecin, in the south up to 15 km from the border with the Czech Republic – and also in the east, where Auch reported the province of Opole their first appearance as many cases were found east of Wroclaw in November and December 2021.

ASF on pig farms in Poland

Last but not least: The virus is also present throughout Poland, as it has been found in wild boars in eastern Poland since 2014. It has resulted in a record 124 infected pig farms across the country, some of them small, some of them commercial-sized. The previous record was reached in 2020 with 103 infected farms.

The largest Polish farm infected with ASF in 2021 was in the Lubusz province in March when the virus reached a farm with almost 16,000 pigs. In total, 7 of the 124 farms had more than 1,000 animals on site.