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Wild boars in the Bavarian Forest National Park
Photo: Dominik Kindermann / IMAGO
According to estimates by the national reference laboratory, the number of wild boars newly infected with African swine fever (ASF) in Germany is decreasing.
According to a report in the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung", the scientist Carola Sauter-Louis from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) said that more than 4,000 cases were now registered in the wild.
However, the trend has recently been declining.
"This is positive news and speaks for the fight against epidemics in Germany." The danger emanating from the animal epidemic remains high.
The first German case of the animal disease was confirmed in a wild boar in Brandenburg on September 10, 2020 - animals in nearby Poland had previously been infected.
Since then, the authorities have noticed outbreaks in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony.
In mid-July last year, swine fever spread to domestic pigs in livestock for the first time in Germany – again in Brandenburg.
Most recently, there had been outbreaks among domestic pigs again in stables in the federal state and also in Lower Saxony.
Several thousand animals were culled.
In order to prevent cross-border transmission of animals, a 120-kilometer fence was erected along the Polish border in Brandenburg.
But animal rights activists had criticized this measure because numerous other animals such as deer died on the wire mesh.
Denmark had also erected a wild boar fence along the border to protect the domestic wild and breeding animals.
There is not yet a vaccine against the virus in Europe, research is ongoing.
However, Sauter-Louis and her colleague Sandra Blome dampened hopes that a vaccine would be used in agriculture.
»The prophylactic use of a vaccine in pigs in the barn is currently difficult for legal reasons alone.
The legal situation at EU level does not allow that so easily,” said Blome.
She sees the use more of a so-called bait vaccination for wild boars.
“The greater the viral load in the wild boar herd, the greater the risk that the virus will find its way into a stable.
So it makes sense to start with the wild boar,” Blome said.
ASF is a contagious viral disease in domestic and wild pigs that is almost always fatal and incurable.
Affected animals suffer from fever, weakness and breathing problems and usually die after seven to ten days.
The disease can be transmitted directly from animal to animal or indirectly by humans to other areas via contaminated objects such as clothing, shoes and food.
ASF is not contagious or dangerous to humans or other animal species.
joe/dpa