HAMBURG: Two further cases of African swine fever (ASF) have been confirmed in farmed pigs in Germany, the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture announced.
One was in the western state of Lower Saxony, which was previously free of the disease, and the other was in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where the disease has already been discovered.
Around 280 pigs and 1,500 piglets from the Emsland farm in Lower Saxony will be slaughtered on Sunday July 3, the Lower Saxony agriculture ministry said separately. Lower Saxony is a huge pig farming region in Germany.
China and a series of other pork buyers banned German pork imports in September 2020 after the first case was confirmed in wild animals. The finds at the farms will make it harder for Germany to lift export bans, analysts say.
The disease is not dangerous for humans but it is fatal for pigs. Many countries are imposing bans on pork from disease-affected regions, distorting global food trade.
Wild boars traveling from Poland to Germany are thought to have spread the disease to Germany in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, where more than 2,000 cases in wild animals have occurred.
The German government sought to contain and eradicate African swine fever in the east in part by reducing the wild boar population. But the country’s large number of wild boars, roaming great distances, made containment difficult.
In May, another case of African swine fever was also discovered on a farm in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany.