Domestic pigs infected with African swine fever for the first time in Germany
For the first time, breeding pigs in Brandenburg have been infected with African swine fever. Recreational hunting of wild boar has failed to stop the spread.
According to media reports, African swine fever was detected for the first time in so-called domestic pigs in Brandenburg on 15 June 2021.
Previously, the disease had been circulating among wild boar, with 1’267 wild animals infected in Brandenburg. Now hundreds of breeding pigs are being culled. In addition, thousands of wild boar continue to be shot in the course of recreational hunting, with the argument that this can contain the spread of the virus.
Driven hunts by hobby hunters in particular startle wild boar, causing them to flee across territory boundaries. This is not the first time such practices have contributed to the faster spread of disease. Hunting wild boar is also counterproductive because the disease is spread primarily by humans, through contaminated food waste and slaughter offal. In livestock facilities, transmission could also occur via farmers — who often hunt themselves — and workers on the premises. PETA is calling for a shift to vegan organic farming and a nationwide ban on driven hunts in Germany.
The infection of domestic pigs with African Swine Fever illustrates that the industrial livestock farming system has failed. Due to the cruel conditions, barns and slaughterhouses are breeding grounds for deadly pathogens. The intensified hunting of wild boar has also failed to stop the spread of the virus, because the spread and emergence of zoonoses is part of the livestock industry. More urgently than ever, we need a shift toward vegan organic farming. Vegan organic farming supports peaceful coexistence with wildlife through lower land and resource consumption and reduces pandemic risks.
Nadja Michler, PETA's specialist for wildlife and hunting
For many breeders, the situation is difficult regardless — the price of pork has been at rock bottom for weeks. There is a risk that some farmers, after selling their animals, may prefer to leave their barns empty rather than bring in new pigs.
The first ASF case in domestic pig herds in the Federal Republic is a new escalation in the spread of this animal disease», said Health Minister Petra Köpping on Friday.
Background information:
As early as September 2020, African Swine Fever had been spreading increasingly in Brandenburg, coming from Poland. A fence erected along the Oder and Neisse rivers failed to halt the spread, as did the already very high hunting pressure. Nationwide, over 880’000 of the wild animals were killed by hunting in the 2019/2020 hunting season; in Brandenburg alone, over 100’000.
Yet the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute for Animal Health emphasizes: "Hunting could disturb the local sounders and potentially lead to pronounced migratory movements, which would increase the risk of the pathogen being spread to new areas“.
The virus exclusively affects domestic and wild pigs. It causes fever, respiratory problems, and weakness in the animals, and typically leads to death within seven to ten days. It poses no danger to humans.
In the wild, animals typically only become infected when they sniff or feed on the carcass of an affected wild boar. Often only individual animals fall ill, but the virus persists for a long time and keeps recurring.
