Swine fever as a justification for recreational hunting

African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most consequential animal diseases in Europe. It kills wild boars and domestic pigs, is harmless to humans, and since 2007 has cut a swathe of economic devastation across the continent. This dossier brings together the key facts, critically assesses the role of recreational hunting, and shows why the political exploitation of the disease is a problem for wild animals, animal welfare and public safety.

What awaits you here

Facts, not panic: What ASF actually is, how it is transmitted, and why the common narratives of the recreational hunting lobby do not stand up to critical scrutiny.

European overview: How the disease has spread since 2007, which countries are currently affected, and which strategies have failed or succeeded.

Switzerland, Germany, Austria: What applies in each country, which measures are being discussed, and what role recreational hunting plays in them.

Argumentation guide: Clearly formulated counter-arguments to the claim that more recreational hunting is the solution to ASF.

Quick links: All relevant articles, studies and sources at a glance.

What is African swine fever?

ASF is a viral disease that affects only domestic pigs and wild boars. It is harmless to humans and other animal species. The virus is extremely resilient: in carcasses, raw sausage, ham and processed meat it can remain infectious for months to years, especially in the cold.

In European domestic pigs and wild boars the disease is almost always fatal. There is no authorised vaccine. Control relies on prevention, early detection and preventing further spread.

How is ASF transmitted?

Direct transmission

Contact between infected and healthy pigs, above all via blood, but also saliva, secretions and semen. Typical routes are contact with carcasses, scavenging and rank fights within the sounder.

Indirect transmission

Ingestion of contaminated meat products and food waste (raw sausage, ham, undercooked meat). Contact with contaminated objects such as vehicles, recreational hunting equipment, shoes, clothing, tools or feed to which virus particles adhere.

The key role of humans

Humans cannot become infected, but they play the decisive role in long-distance 'jump transmissions'. Travel provisions, sausage sandwiches at rest stops, recreational hunting tourism, the transport of trophies and game meat: these are the documented routes by which the virus bridges hundreds of kilometres.

Within wild boar populations, spread is rather slow and stays within normal movement ranges. The sudden new outbreaks almost always arise through human activity, not through wandering wild boars.

Key message: The main responsibility for carrying virus material between wild boar territories lies not with walkers but with hunting activities. Anyone who regularly handles blood, carcasses and game meat carries a high risk of transmission, and many of these people are at the same time in close contact with livestock farming.

ASF in Europe: a chronology of its spread

2007: Arrival in Georgia

The virus reached Georgia on a cargo ship from Africa and spread rapidly into the Caucasus and Russia.

2014: Leap into the EU

The first detections in the EU occurred in the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and Poland. From there, ASF spread steadily westwards over the following years.

2018–2020: Belgium and Germany

In September 2018, ASF was detected in wild boars in Belgium, far from the eastern outbreak areas, clear evidence of human-driven spread. In September 2020 came the first detection in Germany (Brandenburg, Spree-Neisse district).

2022: Northern Italy

In January 2022, ASF was detected for the first time on the Italian mainland in wild boars, in the Liguria/Piedmont region. The spread continues to this day.

2025: The leap to Spain

On 27 November 2025, ASF was confirmed in wild boars in the province of Barcelona, the first outbreak in Spain in over 30 years. The virus belongs to a previously undescribed strain (group 29), with 27 point mutations and a large genetic deletion. How the virus reached Catalonia has still not been conclusively established. Contaminated food waste is considered the most likely cause.

As of February 2026

In Spain, the number of ASF-positive wild boars has risen to over 100, all within the 6-km protection zone around Barcelona. Domestic pigs have not been affected so far. The economic impact is massive: around 70 per cent of the third-country market for Spanish pork exports is closed, and the industry expects damage running into billions. In Germany, restricted zones remain in place in Brandenburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony. In Poland, over 3,000 ASF-positive wild boars were reported in 2025, and over 1,100 in Latvia. According to the FSVO annual report, a total of 18 European countries reported ASF in wild boars in 2025, 16 of them also with outbreaks in domestic pigs. In Germany, the disease has also been circulating since summer 2024 in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and northern Baden-Württemberg, that is, close to the Swiss border.

Germany: the epidemic as a lever for intensive wild boar hunting

In Germany, ASF has been detected in several regions. The control strategy follows a phased model: first a recreational hunting ban in the core area, intensive carcass searches and fences, followed by targeted culling of wild boars and intensified hunting in the restricted zones.

The agriculture ministries and recreational hunting associations stress that recreational hunters should reduce wild boar populations "with joint forces": driven hunts, drone deployment, night hunting technology and financial incentives for every wild boar killed. The German Hunting Association presents ASF as the central justification for intensified wild boar hunting.

The scientific evidence for this approach is thin. Studies show that intensive hunting disturbs wild boar populations, enlarges their movement ranges and thus potentially spreads the virus faster instead of containing it. Added to this is the so-called compensatory reproduction effect.

Austria: prevention with hunting rhetoric

Austria has so far been spared ASF outbreaks in wild boar populations, but it positions itself strongly through prevention and economic protection arguments. Official bodies warn that an outbreak would be «fatal» for pig farmers.

For recreational hunters, this means: recreational hunting trips to affected countries are to be made without bringing back game meat, biosecurity rules must be observed, and hunting of wild boar is communicated as a service to domestic agriculture. This shifts recreational hunting towards a supposedly «system-critical» activity, while recreational hunting tourism at the same time remains a not insignificant risk for spreading the disease.

Switzerland: ASF-free, but on epidemic alert

Switzerland is officially free of African swine fever, but has run a national early-detection programme for wild boar since 2018. All wild boars found dead, shot while sick or killed in road accidents are to be reported and tested for ASF. The Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) coordinates the evaluation. In the 2025/26 hunting year (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026), samples from 247 wild boars from 15 cantons were tested, all negative. According to its annual report, the FSVO assumes that the Swiss wild boar population is free of ASF. By comparison, according to the Federal Hunting Statistics 2025, 9,280 wild boars were shot in the same year.

Cantons such as Zurich, Lucerne and Thurgau have prepared detailed scenarios: in the event of an outbreak, these would provide for intensive carcass searches, recreational hunting bans in defined zones, restrictions on forest use and the killing of domestic pigs on affected farms.

The FSVO sees the greatest danger in the improper handling of contaminated meat products, such as ham or salami, brought back by travellers from affected regions. The southern corridor in the canton of Ticino is particularly exposed, where various precautions have been discussed, including information campaigns, checks and scenarios for an incursion from northern Italy.

ASF fences: death traps for wild animals

One of the most controversial tools in combating ASF is large-scale wild boar fencing. In Brandenburg, a fence more than 250 kilometres long was erected along the Polish border. In Denmark, a 70-kilometre fence stands on the German border.

The consequences for other wild animals are systematically played down: roe deer become entangled in the fences and die, migration routes are cut off, and the genetic mixing of populations is impaired in the long term. Animal welfare organisations and national park authorities have repeatedly pointed to the negative effects.

The fences illustrate a fundamental problem: instead of consistently blocking the routes by which humans spread the disease, the 'solution' is shifted onto restricting the freedom of movement of wild animals. Yet the disease does not travel hundreds of kilometres on four legs, but in cool bags, on recreational hunters' boots and in sausage sandwiches.

Wolves as natural ASF fighters

Research findings show that wolves can help to reduce the spread of ASF in the wild boar population. Because wolves hunt wild boars and feed on their carcasses, they reduce the amount of virus in the wild without spreading the virus themselves.

Carcasses of infected wild boars are the most dangerous source of the virus in the forest. Wolves remove these carcasses naturally, faster and over a wider area than any official carcass search. At the same time, wolves keep wild boar populations on the move and prevent large concentrations, which lowers the likelihood of transmission.

The irony: while on the one hand the hunting of wild boars is being intensified in the name of combating ASF, on the other hand the natural regulators of wild boar populations, the wolves, are being politically attacked and shot.

Arguments: Why “more recreational hunting” is not a solution

'ASF can only be contained through more kills'

Wrong. The EFSA stresses that compliance with biosecurity measures and refraining from hunting activities that can lead to the disease spreading are the key to reducing the risk of ASF. Intensive hunting disturbs wild boars, enlarges their ranges and can spread the disease faster.

'Recreational hunters are essential to combating the disease'

Carcass searches and sampling in the event of an outbreak require trained personnel and coordinated deployments. Recreational hunters, who regularly handle blood and game meat and travel between different hunting grounds, themselves pose a considerable risk of spreading the disease. Professional game wardens and veterinary authorities are better suited to the task.

'Wild boars carry the disease into the stables'

In practice, wild boars are almost never found directly inside the pens of domestic pigs. The decisive route of transmission in livestock farming is the indirect one: contaminated shoes, vehicles, tools or meat products, in other words via humans.

“Without recreational hunting, the wild boar population will explode”

Under intense recreational hunting pressure, wild boar populations respond with compensatory reproduction: more piglets per sow and earlier sexual maturity. Population numbers have been rising for decades despite rising kill figures. The Geneva model shows that state-run wildlife management works without recreational hunting.

“ASF fences provide effective protection”

Fences do not stop the main routes of transmission (humans, meat products, vehicles), yet they become death traps for other wild animals and fragment habitats. They treat a symptom, not the cause.

“The virus spreads through wild boar migration”

The sudden new outbreaks hundreds of kilometres apart can almost entirely be traced back to human transmission, often through recreational hunting tourism or contaminated meat products.

What really helps: prevention without a recreational hunting spiral

Stricter controls on the import of meat products, especially from affected regions. Consistent information for travellers at border crossings, rest areas and airports. Safe disposal of food waste in public spaces and along transport routes. Targeted biosecurity measures in pig farming, including hygiene locks, access controls and training. Early reporting systems and passive surveillance (reporting of carcass finds). Professional carcass management by veterinary authorities rather than by recreational hunters (template motion: No recreational hunting against swine fever). Promotion of natural regulators such as the wolf, which removes carcasses and influences wild boar populations. Research into vaccines and immunocontraception (GnRH technology).

Quick links

Articles on Wild beim Wild:

Related dossiers:

Our Standard

ASF is a serious animal disease. But the way it is being used politically to expand recreational hunting, to legitimise more intensive hunting and to portray wild animals primarily as risk factors deserves critical scrutiny. This dossier is updated continuously as new developments require.

More on the topic of recreational hunting: in our Dossier "Hunting in Switzerland: Figures, Systems and Myths" we bring together fact checks, analyses and background reports.