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Not everyone is convinced that Germany is on the right track in combating ASF infections in the country’s wild boar population. In Brandenburg, Anna Heyer-Stuffer is a crisis manager in the fight against the virus. She feels like things are moving in the right direction.
Her term of office runs until the end of 2024. Before the end of this year, Anna Heyer-Stuffer hopes to be able to deal with topics other than African Swine Fever (ASF). She is State Secretary for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection for the State of Brandenburg. Heyer-Stuffer is also a crisis manager in the fight against the virus, a process that takes a lot of time, visits, meetings, crisis summits, etc.
Brandenburg has been fighting the virus for a year. The coordination and financing of the battle is the task of the individual member states in Germany. The implementation of targeted measures is a task delegated to the districts (a lower geographical subdivision). In her role as a crisis manager, Heyer-Stuffer is mainly criticized by the German pig industry. The German Farmers’ Association recently announced in a press release that the fight against the ASF virus should be more urgent and consistent. Heyer-Stuffer is aware of this.
Anna Heyer-Stuffer, State Secretary for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection in Brandenburg, also ARSP crisis manager. – Photo: Kees van Dooren
What do you think about it?
“In a crisis, you shouldn’t look for the guilty party, you should look for solutions. From our point of view, the fight against ARSP is fast and consistent. As soon as it was legally possible for us, Brandenburg quickly and proactively took the necessary measures. In one year we built 1,000 km of permanent fences to stop wild boar migration. One fence along the Polish border is completely finished and a second one is under construction. The decision to build a double fence parallel to the Polish border was made together with the farmers’ union.
“One of its chairmen, Henrik Wendorff, is part of the crisis talks. It’s just really teamwork. We also meet, talk, phone and email the IGS, the local representation of the pig industry and many others.
“The criticism of the pig industry is related to the fear of the economy. This is very understandable. But we are really on the right track in the fight against ARSP. We managed to keep the disease in the east, near the border. And we are already seeing that in the areas that were hit first and that were closed with fences, that have been closely monitored and where we have reduced the wild boar population, infections are falling significantly.
“But we also have to realize that not all expectations and hopes of the pig industry are realistic. Just compare it to the Baltic states and think how long it took to get the ASF virus under control there. The fight against ASF is not a sprint, but a marathon. The pressure of infection from the Polish border will not decrease in the foreseeable future. ”
Pig farmers in the affected areas can only claim support if additional costs have been incurred, e.g. for transport and health monitoring. There is no income support. This is also a major point of criticism from Minister Till Backhaus of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Do you think pig farmers who indirectly suffered from ASF should receive income support?
“Yes. But that is a task of the federal government in Berlin, because the federal states are only allowed to support farmers to a very limited extent. The federal government must submit a proposal and have it approved in Brussels (EU headquarters, editor’s note). Because direct State support is prohibited. In the affected regions of the state of Brandenburg there are around 100,000 commercial pigs. Compared to the around 25 million commercially kept pigs in Germany, that is of course a small number.
“It is a success of our work that ASP has not yet affected a pig-dense state like Lower Saxony. However, it cannot be that so far only East Germany has been affected, but that no proposal has gone to Brussels. For the pig producers here, it is particularly ironic to hear that the Polish government has already provided 40 million euros for their pig sector, but the German government has not. However, Poland is not doing much to combat the virus in the wild boar population, rather it is focusing on protecting its commercial pig farms. However, outbreaks in Poland have shown that this was not entirely successful. “
Could you use your influence to get the Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin to accelerate?
“We are in close contact with the Ministry of Agriculture through weekly conference calls, in writing and in other formats at all levels from the minister herself to our veterinary experts. So these talks are going on, but the farmers obviously want to see more progress. They have their own lobby, but they and we agree; Everything must be done to support the pig producers in Brandenburg, otherwise they will cease to exist. The pig industry is part of our agriculture. And in the transition to more local food production, the local pig industry is simply needed. “
Pigs in the restricted area are now transported by truck to the Thomsen slaughterhouse in Kellinghusen, which is a journey of 500 km and sometimes much further. Why not organize a local slaughterhouse?
“This problem is real: for some companies, Kellinghusen is as far away as northern Italy would be. We asked the federal government for support in convincing other companies to step in because one slaughterhouse is not enough.
“There are other slaughterhouses nearby but they don’t welcome the pigs. We can’t force them to accept the pigs. It’s another problem that the federal government in Berlin is not showing any urgency about, but we hope that will change.
“ARSP is not a typical East German problem, but a problem for all of Germany and even all of Europe. It is important for every country in the European Union that the virus does not spread any further.
Anna Heyer-Stuffer at the press conference about 1 year ASF in Germany. – Photo: Vincent ter Beek
“I would also like to make it clear: The transport of pigs out of the restricted area does not pose a veterinary risk. The health monitoring is excellent. Pigs sent to the slaughterhouse are not infected with ASF. In Saxony there is now a small slaughterhouse that accepts pigs from the ASF area – they have a weekly capacity of 650 pigs. I hope that they can also take in some pigs from the restricted areas in Brandenburg, but of course that cannot be the only solution. “
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