Shortly after the first evidence of African swine fever (ASP) near the Polish border with Germany, the authorities have reported a second find. The pathogen was detected in another dead boar in the administrative district of Lebus, said the Polish veterinary service.
The authorities reported the first find on Friday near a rural road between the villages of Nowa Sol and Slawa in the district of Wschowski, about 80 kilometers from the border with Brandenburg.
According to the first evidence, it has set up restricted areas around the site, said Stanislaw Mysliwiec, chairman of the Chamber of Agriculture. Volunteers scoured the area for dead boars. "On Saturday we found nine dead animals, on Sunday eleven." The now positively tested boar was a find from early Saturday morning, it said. The test results for the other animals should be available within the next 48 hours.
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The African swine fever is carried over contaminated items such as tools, shoes or tires. Also, infested with the virus food and contaminated feed can spread the infection. Travelers coming from areas affected by swine fever should not, therefore, accidentally discard their sausage products along the roadside.
Pork is becoming more expensive
In the east of Poland, there have been cases of African swine fever for five years. In addition to Romania, Hungary and the Baltic states, the state is one of the countries in Europe that are hit hardest. The case, which became known a few days ago in the west of the country, however, experts consider an "isolated outbreak", which is not related to the previously known cases in the rest of Poland.
The German Ministry of Agriculture also sees the animal epidemic as a threat. Prevention therefore comes first, it said. Already in 2018 there had been an exercise to improve the communication between Poland and Germany in the matter.
Other regions are also currently fighting the epidemic. In China, the disease brings whole stocks of domestic pigs there. In early June, nearly 5,000 animals had to be killed because the virus had been found in a slaughterhouse. The prices for pork are also rising in this country due to the large spread of the animal epidemic in China.