Another case of ASF registered on a German farm

The German Federal Ministry of Agriculture announced this week that another case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in farm pigs in East Germany.

Germany has reported an outbreak of ASF on a pig farm in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a region hitherto considered free from the disease. "The national reference laboratory - the Friedrich Löffler Institute (FLI) - today identified the animal disease in relevant samples and is now also investigating the cause of the pathogen entering the herd," the German agriculture ministry announced on Monday.

After several fattening pigs died on a farm in the Rostock area, samples were sent to the FLI for testing, which confirmed the suspicion of ASF. Now the measures of the Swine Fever Ordinance come into force under the responsibility of the federal states: among other things, the responsible authority on the spot must order the killing and disposal of all animals in the herd.

So far, there have been no cases of ASF in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, neither in wild boars nor in domestic pigs. Cases of ASF have occurred in Brandenburg (wild and domestic pigs) and Saxony (wild pigs) since September 2020. “Biosecurity is the most important factor in protecting swine herds from the entry of the ASF pathogen. Disease legislation, and therefore animal disease control, is the responsibility of the authorities responsible under the laws of the State,” the officials added.

The continuous spread of the disease to other farms and other regions in Germany could be a disaster for the pig industry in the country. Germany is the second largest pork producer in the EU and, although it lost access to many third markets due to the wild boar outbreak in September 2020, it still provides a significant amount of pork supply in the EU single market.