Swine fever warning after case confirmed near French border
African Swine Fever (ASF) has been detected on a German pig unit close to the French border – a 500km (311 miles) jump from previous known cases.
The outbreak was in a small herd of outdoor pigs near Baden-Wuerttemberg, in western Germany.
Scientists at the Friedrich-Löffler-Institute (FLI) confirmed 16 animals had died from the disease on the farm before it was confirmed.
State vets moved in to cull the remaining pigs after ASF was diagnosed and restriction zones were put in place around the farm.
Officials reckoned there were two commercial farms inside the 3km exclusion zone and almost 60 in the wider 10km surveillance zone.
An investigation is under way to try to establish the source and whether the virus was present in the local wild boar population.
But the commonly held theory is that the long distance from previous cases points to an infection route via human movement.
Jonathan Riley / Farmers Weekly
Read full article Share on twitter