On Monday 28 January, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, called on national authorities to increase efforts to improve coordination and cooperation to control African swine fever (see EUROPE 12166).
Mr Andriukaitis told the Agriculture Council that the disease constituted a “serious risk to the EU pigmeat industry, its wild boar population and the environment”.
He confirmed that the uncontrolled growth in the number of wild boars in the EU had played a significant role in the spread of the virus.
Hunting practices must be taken into account in any long-term strategy, he added.
Spain expressed concern about the potential economic impact of the disease and called for a European Union strategy to address the problem. Italy requested sufficient economic support to deal with the virus.
Belgium outlined the actions it has undertaken in cooperation with neighbouring countries.
Fences. Denmark is building a fence on its border with Germany to contain the spread of the disease. France has called in the army to support hunters in killing several hundred animals in a ‘white area’ on the border with Belgium. A fence is also being built.
Mr Andriukaitis said that initiatives of this kind (fences) had no basis in science, were ineffective and were a waste of taxpayers' money. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)