First case of African swine fever in wild boar in Saxony

The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) reports that African swine fever (ASF) has been detected for the first time in a wild boar in Saxony. The animal was killed during a hunt and had no symptoms of illness. The wild boar was routinely screened for ASF examined. The discovery site is near the Polish border in Upper Lusatia, district of Görlitz.

There has been an active ASP in Poland since 2014-Event that has spread to the west. Since January there have been cases of ASP occurred in the immediate vicinity of the German border. After a first case of ASP was confirmed in a wild boar in Brandenburg, there were - as expected - other cases. 

As before in Brandenburg, the specifications of the Swine Fever Ordinance now apply. The competent authority in Saxony must now take all necessary measures to prevent the disease from spreading. This includes designating zones with special protective measures.

The BMEL is in close contact with the Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs and Social Cohesion (SMS). In addition, we will reconvene the central crisis team for animal epidemics with representatives from the federal and state governments, headed by the State Secretary in the BMEL, Beate Kasch. On the initiative of the BMEL Protective measures such as the construction of permanent fences are co-financed by the European Union. Last week, the European Commission explicitly praised and encouraged Germany for the measures taken so far and the coordinated approach to disease control. With more instances of ASP, which were reported from Brandenburg yesterday, the total number of detected ASFcases in Germany to a total of 117. We publish the update of the number of cases on our homepage under the following link: www.bmel.de/asp

Hintergrund:
The domestic pig stocks in Germany are still free of African swine fever. The plague is harmless to humans. the ASP is a highly contagious animal disease that is easily transmitted from wild boar to wild boar. For humans, ASP harmless. The Federal Ministry informs the European Union, the World Organization for Animal Health as well as trading partners continuously about new ones ASPcases in Germany.