Penkun (dpa/mv) - After two cases of African swine fever (ASF) in wild boar in Poland at the end of August, no dead wild animals have been discovered on the German side. As a spokeswoman for the Vorpommern-Greifswald district said on Friday, there were several searches for fallen game in southern Western Pomerania in September. With the support of hunters, firefighters and drones, the area on the German side between federal highway 104 near Grambow and the state border with Brandenburg south of Autobahn 11 Berlin-Stettin was intensively searched for dead wild boars.
Because of the falls near Kolbitzow (Kolbaskow) in Poland - opposite Pomellen on the A11 - the south of Western Pomerania was classified as exclusion zone I, i.e. as a buffer zone. "It's a good sign that the district has so far been spared from African swine fever," said District Administrator Michael Sack (CDU).
The Schwerin Ministry of Agriculture had a protective fence erected along the border in 2020 so that the animal disease, which is deadly for pigs and has been rampant in Poland for some time, is not brought in from there. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, there was an ASF case in wild boar for the first time in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district in November 2021, the cause remained unclear.
According to the ministry, 42 evidence of ASF in wild boar and one outbreak in an animal population in the Rostock district are known to date. ASF is a contagious viral disease in domestic and wild pigs that is almost always fatal. It is not dangerous for humans and other animal species. There is no way to protect pigs with preventive vaccination.
