Schwerin (dpa/mv) - According to Agriculture Minister Till Backhaus (SPD), the fence against African swine fever along the border between Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Poland is a success. He hardly poses a problem for wild animals. Within a year, two deer and two deer died on the fence, Backhaus said on Wednesday in Schwerin. That's not nice, but there are more than 12,000 accidents involving wildlife every year in the north-east. The suffering of the affected animals is much greater.
Backhaus was responding to criticism from nature conservation organizations that the fence was a death trap for wild animals. Backhaus pointed to 414 measures on the fence, such as opportunities for deer and deer to jump over. The 1.50 meter high protective fence was lowered to 1.30 meters at regular intervals. In addition, tubes were embedded in the ground so that beavers, foxes and wolves could get from one side to the other.
The protective fence is intended to prevent wild boar, which could be infected with the dreaded African swine fever, from reaching Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania from Poland. In Poland, the disease is widespread among wild boar - according to Backhaus, it is out of control there. According to him, around 30 cases have been reported in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania so far - not on the border with Poland, but in the western district of Ludwigslust-Parchim. In Brandenburg and Saxony, on the other hand, the disease is spreading rapidly from Poland. In the two federal states, the number of cases is many times higher than in MV. "The fence was the right decision," he said.
