Germany has not recorded any new cases of African swine fever in farms since mid-July, but the disease continues to spread in the wild boar population.
The latest report from the EU Animal Disease Information System indicates that for the period from 2 January to 6 August 2021, the number of outbreaks in domestic pigs in the countries covered is 933 and that 8,507 outbreaks have been found in wild boar.
The situation is most worrying in Poland, Bernard Van Goethem of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health told the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture on the 1 September. The Polish government has released €43.6 million to help producers affected by the disease.
The disease is moving inexorably westwards, said Mr Van Goethem.
A vaccine is hoped for, but at this stage, despite the €40 million the EU has spent over the past eight years to support research in this area, no vaccine is available on the market. However, warns Bernard Van Goethem, “we will not be able to eradicate the disease without this vaccine”. In the meantime, most of the work is focused on the management of wild boar populations in collaboration with the hunting federations. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)