June 10, 2024

ASF confirmed in eastern Germany

German authorities announced a case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in farm swine in eastern Germany, Reuters reported.

The outbreak was detected at a swine breeding farm in Greifswald, located in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, according to the state's agriculture ministry.

Since September 2020, China and several other pork-importing countries have banned imports of German pork following the first confirmed ASF case in wild animals. Subsequent cases in farm animals have made lifting these export bans challenging, analysts note. The ban by China remains in effect.

The disease is believed to have spread to Germany's eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony through wild boar migrating from Poland. Several thousand cases have been reported in wild animals in these regions.

The German government has been working to contain and eradicate ASF in the east, partly by reducing the wild boar population. However, the large number of wild boars, which travel over extensive areas, has made containment efforts difficult.

-      Reuters