ASF Germany: Infected wild boar up to 5 in NRW state
The number of cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) virus in wild boar in the populous German state North Rhine Westphalia state has gone up to 5 – up from 1.
The 4 additional carcasses were found close to the first wild boar carcass that was confirmed infected this weekend. That carcass of a young adult wild boar was found in a forest near Kirchhundem, district Olpe, as part of the wild boar monitoring programme.
The 4 other carcasses were found in the direct vicinity on Sunday 15 June. Testing and confirmation by Germany’s reference lab Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) has now confirmed those 4 animals had also died from ASF virus.
North Rhine Westphalia is bordering both the Netherlands and Belgium, where the outbreaks have also led to local alarm – even though the outbreak has been detected 150 km from both borders.
As a result of the first outbreak, the authorities created an ‘infected zone’ on Monday night with a 15 km radius around the site of the infected animal near Kirchhundem. Apart from the Olpe district, it also includes parts of the Hochsauerland district as well as the Siegen-Wittgenstein district. In total, 10 larger swine farmers are located in that area. Those farms are subject to restrictions.
According to the German agricultural title Top Agrar, there is also good news: other than these 5 carcasses, no further suspicious carcasses had been found immediately after the weekend, despite intensive searches with drones and dogs.
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