The risk of introducing African swine fever into Germany continues to be high in view of new cases in Poland and the Czech Republic. Special danger originates from humans, as a spokeswoman of the Friedrich Loeffler institute (FLI) said this Tuesday.
Thus, the epidemic, which advances from Eastern Europe to the west, could very quickly be registered in Germany by contaminated leftovers that are disposed of at resting places.
The disease has been introduced into the EU via Georgia and Russia and has since been detected in six Member States. In Poland, the swine fever had penetrated to the west of the capital Warsaw. According to the FLI, between the end of November and the beginning of January there were 279 new cases in wild boar in Poland. The situation there was considered by the researchers to be worrying.
In the Czech Republic, where the epidemic is concentrated in the Zlin region on the Slovak border, 25 new cases have been registered since the end of November. According to FLI, there were a total of 248 outbreaks in domestic pigs and 3859 in wild boars in the Baltic States, Ukraine, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic last year.An end does not seem in sight.
The pathogen is harmless to humans. In pigs, however, the disease is fatal in almost all cases. There is no vaccine against the disease. An introduction into breeding farms could therefore lead to great economic damage. Federal Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt (CSU) described the situation on Tuesday as "quite serious". "We try to prepare ourselves in the best possible way," Schmidt told the "Passauer Neue Presse". He called for strict hygiene and precautionary measures. "From the pig farmer to the trader to the traveler, everyone must help prevent the spread."
For several months, the federal and state governments have been preparing for the "worst case" of a possible outbreak of the disease in Germany. The hunt for black smock was intensified. Authorities and hunting associations have also developed a catalog of measures to respond in the event of a disease outbreak.
Accordingly, similar to the Czech Republic, three danger zones would be set up.While in the core zone immediately around the place of discovery the focus of control is on the collection of carcasses, boars would be intensively hunted, especially in the outer buffer zone. The researchers believe that a massive reduction of the wild boar population by more than 70 percent is needed there to prevent the spread of African swine fever. However, no country affected by ASP has been able to eradicate the disease so far.
Greifswald-Riems / Passau (dpa) - Source: time online
