“No case has been identified at this stage among wildlife in the surrounding area,” announced the French Ministry of Agriculture.
Article written by
Published
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
The place affected is six kilometers from the French border. An outbreak of African swine fever has been detected in a pig farm in Forchheim am Kaiserstuhl (Germany), the French Ministry of Agriculture announced on Thursday 26 May. The affected farm, which has 35 free-range pigs, was completely depopulated. “No cases have been identified at this stage among wildlife in the surrounding area”, the ministry said. He will launch a crisis unit “next week” with “all state professionals and services”.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italian farmers alerted the government last week to the worrying spread of swine fever on the peninsula. Cases have been detected in northwestern Italy and the Rome region.
The disease only affects pigs, wild boars and warthogs and is not transmissible to people. However, the virus is very contagious for these animals, with a very high mortality rate. It is transmitted from one animal to another through the consumption of infected foodstuffs, or through contact with any contaminated medium.