HAMBURG (Reuters) -Another case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in a wild boar in the Uckermark region in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, the Brandenburg state health ministry said on Thursday.
This is the second ASF case in a wild boar in the Uckermark region, which is north of the other areas of Brandenburg where ASF has been found in large numbers of wild boar.
A total of 1,670 ASF cases in wild boar have been confirmed in Brandenburg since the first was discovered in September 2020, the state health ministry said. Another 456 ASF cases have been found in wild boar in the state of Saxony further south but only three cases on farms, all small.
China and a series of other pork buyers banned imports of German pork in September 2020 after Germany’s first ASF case.
Germany said last week it was optimistic the disease was being confined in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony along the Polish border.
Wild boars wondering into Germany from Poland spread the disease, which is harmless to humans but fatal for pigs.
Germany’s strategy to counter swine fever includes building fences along the Polish border to prevent wild boar entering Germany, intensified hunting of wild boar and strict hygiene measures on farms.
The latest case in a wild boar in Uckermark was found a few kilometres from the Polish border, the state health ministry said. The animal was found on the western side of the anti-wild boar fence along the Polish border.
Authorities are now searching the area around the find to see if there are any more dead wild boar.
