February 1, 2019

Denmark starts building 'anti-ASF' fence on German border 

Denmark has begun building a 70-kilometre fence along the German border to keep out wild boars that may carry African swine fever (ASF), the Associated Press reported.

The building of the 30-million-kroner (US$4.6-million), 5-foot-tall barrier was approved by the Parliament way back in June 2018 to protect Denmark's valuable pork exports to countries outside of the non-European Union, which are worth 11 billion kroner (US$1.6 billion) annually. In 2016, total Danish pork exports were worth about 30 billion kroner ($4.55 billion).

The report said work on the 30-million-kroner (US$4.6-million), 5-foot-tall fence began on Monday, Jan. 28, in Padborg, 220 kilometres southwest of Copenhagen.

Critics, however, claimed that the fence would harm wildlife. Danish officials have also admitted that wild animals could pass through the gaps in the fence.

The AP report said there have been no reported cases of ASF in Germany, although there have been in some neighboring countries including Begium, Bulgaria and Hungary.

In Denmark pigs outnumber people, with 215 pigs to every 100 residents, according to figures from Eurostat.

ASF causes haemorrhagic fever in pigs that almost always ends in death within a few days.