France announced on Tuesday that it had increased the level of surveillance for African swine fever in Moselle and Bas-Rhin to prevent the introduction from Germany by wild boars infected with this disease, which is fatal for pigs and disastrous for the economy.
“Given the recent progression of ASF (African swine fever) in wild boars in Germany, the ministry this week raised ASF surveillance – to level 2B of the wildlife surveillance network (Sagir network) – in the departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle.”according to the Ministry of Agriculture. This network includes 4 levels of surveillance. Level 2B allows “mobilize more field actors” to increase reports of wild boar carcasses, their collection and analysis in areas bordering an infected zone.
According to the latest bulletin from the French animal disease surveillance platform, dated September 10, “the closest case to the border with France remains 78 km away”. This reinforced surveillance has also been active since January 2022 in the Hautes-Alpes, Alpes de Haute-Provence and Alpes-Maritimes bordering northern Italy, which is also affected. This reinforcement of surveillance comes after agricultural unions urged the authorities to organize mass roundups to eliminate “all wild boars” near the German border to prevent the spread of the disease.
No vaccine
In its press release, the ministry states that it is “in conjunction with representatives of hunters to achieve optimal regulation of wild boars on the border with Germany, as is done in the PACA region”. Not transmissible to humans, African swine fever (ASF) is a viral hemorrhagic disease with a mortality rate close to 100%. No vaccine is available.
Endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, ASF can spread from one country to another via the movement of infected wild boars, vehicle wheels or a sandwich containing cold cuts from an infected pig. In addition to the direct losses for farmers whose animals are euthanized, ASF can halt pork exports and disrupt the economy of the sector. This is what happened to Germany, previously the largest pork producer in the European Union.
