ASF from Germany is approaching the French border

Last week, Germany reported a new outbreak on a pig farm in a region that is 500 kilometers from areas where the disease has been detected so far. Even more worrying is that the new outbreak is located 7 km from the border with France.

The national reference laboratory for ASF in Germany, the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), reported on 24 May an outbreak at a domestic pig farm located in the southwest of the country, specifically in the municipality of Forchheim, in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg-Territory which until now has been considered disease-free. This is an organic fattening facility with a census of 35 pigs and double fencing. On the other hand, 140 foreign workers are employed in the area for agricultural activities, and experts attribute this incident to a human factor, since not a single case of infection of wild boars has been reported in this region. From the start of the outbreak to 26 May 2022, a total of 3756 outbreaks in wild boar have been reported in Germany (403 in 2020, 2551 in 2021 and 802 in 2022), all of them were identified in the eastern part of the country. , in the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and five outbreaks (including the current one) in domestic pigs.

The German authorities immediately took control measures to cull the pigs and establish quarantine zones. Similarly, trained dogs are used in the vicinity of the farm to search for possible diseased wild boars. The German authorities have contacted the French authorities to inform them and agree with them on actions to prevent the further spread of the virus.