Dresden (dpa / sn) - After new cases of African swine fever (ASF), Saxony has expanded its protection zones. Infected animals were found in the Meißen district and in the Bautzen district near the state border with Brandenburg, as the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday. The extended restriction zones were published by general decree of the Saxony State Directorate and have been in effect since Monday. The ASF virus was first detected in Bavaria on October 31, 2020. Since then, 1372 official records have been registered in the districts of Görlitz, Bautzen and Meißen.
"We will erect the necessary fences as soon as possible to prevent the animal disease from spreading further west," said Sebastian Vogel, State Secretary in the Ministry of Health and head of the crisis team. In the future, the western border of Exclusion Zone II will run north of Meissen, first along the Elbe and then with the Grödel-Elsterwerdaer Floss Canal to the state border with Brandenburg. In the north of the district of Bautzen, exclusion zone II is extended to include a triangular area between the communities of Kamenz, Schwepnitz and Bernsdorf, which is bordered on the north by the state border.
Wild boars are to be hunted more intensively in the areas. In addition, you want to get dead animals out of the forest quickly. Live and killed wild boar and wild boar products may not be taken out of the exclusion zone.
ASF is a contagious disease in domestic and wild pigs that is almost always fatal and incurable. There is no way to protect pigs with preventive vaccination, it said. The disease can be transmitted directly from animal to animal or indirectly by humans to other areas via contaminated objects such as clothing, shoes and feed. ASF is not contagious or dangerous to humans or other animal species.
