African Swine Fever detected in Germany for the first time

After African Swine Fever (ASF) had already occurred several times in Poland, the pathogen has now been detected for the first time in a dead wild boar found in the Brandenburg district of Spree-Neiße. This was announced today by the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI).

A crossing of the animal disease into Germany had been feared for some time. African Swine Fever has been spreading through Poland for several months. In March, a wild boar that had died from the disease was discovered in the eastern neighbouring country just over ten kilometres from the border.

The illegal disposal of food waste containing the pathogen is suspected to be the cause of its spread across Europe. Brandenburg had erected a 120-kilometre electric security fence along the border to stop wild boar. A fence was also built along the Saxon border.

Germany's Agriculture Minister emphasised on Thursday that the introduction of the virus had essentially been expected sooner or later. Swiss authorities had expressed similar views in the past. Switzerland had so far been free of the animal disease, wrote the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) in its annual report  on the national early detection programme for ASF in wild boar 2019/2020. “However, there is a permanent risk of introduction.” This risk would now increase as travel activity picks up again following the easing of coronavirus protective measures, according to the FSVO.

African Swine Fever (ASF)

The virus exclusively affects domestic pigs and wild boar, causing fever, respiratory problems and weakness in the animals, and typically leads to death within seven to ten days. It poses no danger to humans.

After the German Farmers' Association, fearing financial losses, called for intensified hunting of wild boar as an allegedly necessary preventive measure, the number of wild animals killed in the 2017/2018 hunting year increased by 42% nationwide compared to the previous year, reaching 836’900 animals.

PETA is now calling for a nationwide ban on driven hunts in Germany and points out that wild boar, which are loyal to their territories, are driven into more distant areas primarily by driven hunts. Intensified hunting is not effective, because the disease is transmitted and spread mainly through contaminated food and slaughter waste — in other words, by humans. Any transmission into livestock facilities would, if it occurred at all, take place through farmers — who are often hobby hunters themselves — and workers. Preventive measures would therefore only be meaningful in this context.

Driven hunts in particular startle wild boar, causing them to flee across territorial boundaries. This contributes to the rapid spread of disease. Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner must therefore immediately impose a ban on drive hunts and driven hunts. The animals themselves are loyal to their home ranges and, without human interference, do not contribute meaningfully to the spread of the virus.

says Peter Höffken, policy expert at PETA

Background information

The FLI also emphasizes: “Hunting could cause unrest among the local sounders and may, under certain circumstances, lead to pronounced migratory movements that increase the risk of spreading the pathogen“.

The already high hunting pressure currently being exerted is also counterproductive, as it drives population growth. Studies show that wild boar respond to intensive hunting with an increased reproduction rate. This is why the population has been rising for years. Wildlife populations regulate themselves through food availability, climate, and disease. Scientists have demonstrated that female animals in hunted wild boar populations reach sexual maturity earlier and that birth rates increase.