According to a statement by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, cases of African swine fever in domestic pigs have occurred for the first time in Germany. So far, this swine fever in Germany had occurred only in wild boar.

The positively tested pigs come from Brandenburg. According to the report, they concern an organic farm in the district of Spree-Neiße and a small-scale holding in the district of Märkisch-Oderland.In the farm in the district of Spree-Neiße, the virus was detected in a dead animal, said the Ministry of Consumer Protection in Potsdam. As a result, all 200 animals of the herd were killed and "harmlessly disposed of". The Kleinsthaltung in Märkisch-Oderland had included only two animals.

How it came to the infection of the animals, is now being investigated. "It is now important that we quickly find the cause of the entry into the pig herds, so that we know which path the virus took," said Brandenbug's Consumer Protection Minister Ursula Nonnemacher (Greens) "The fact that the cases were apparently found quickly shows that the animal disease monitoring works."

Both cases occurred in counties already affected by African swine fever in feral pigs near the Polish border. Protection zones and surveillance zones are now to be established around the affected farms.

African swine fever is a severe viral infection that exclusively affects pigs - both wild and domestic - and is usually fatal for them. For humans, the pathogen is harmless, the ministry further informs. The disease cannot be transmitted to humans through the consumption of pork or contact with animals.However, it poses an economic threat to livestock farming. Affected farmers can receive compensation from the animal disease fund. However, the consequences of the disease have been felt by farmers for some time: important export markets, especially China, closed their doors to pork from Germany months ago.

Photo by Amber Kipp