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Germany had to expand 2 of its 4 core zones to accommodate the recent cases of African swine fever in its wild boar population.
The largest increase was for the core zone in the district Gorlitz, in Saxony. This core zone, which borders Poland to the east, is being expanded to about twice its size to accommodate a newer case found on January 20 about 10 km south of the other sites. With only 19 infected wild boars so far, cases have been found relatively rarely in this zone. Paying due attention to the area is likely to be advisable, as infected carcasses are often found on the other side of the Neisse river.
Märkisch-Oderland: ASF core zone extended to the west
The other extended zone is over 100 km further north in Märkisch-Oderland Brandenburg district. This core zone also borders Poland in the east and follows the border river Oder. Here the core zone had to be expanded slightly to the west in order to include the site of 13 infected wild boars just outside the first core zones.
The core zones are an essential part of Germany’s extermination strategy, which follows the protocols of the European Union. Core zones are fenced in to ensure that infected animals cannot leave the area and transport the virus to another location. After fencing, the next step is to create “white zones†around the core zones. These are corridors – again fenced – in which all wild boars present are shot to ensure that these animals do not create a reservoir for the virus to escape from the inner core zone.
A healthy wild boar foraging in a forest in Germany. – Photo: Shutterstock
Once the white zones are free of wild boar, hunters enter the inner zones to kill the remaining wild boar population and conduct a thorough search.
In the northern, Brandenburg-Oderland location, the infected carcasses were found within the white zone that had already been created around the inner area, that is, the area was already fenced off. This could mean that the virus may not have spread much further.
The aggravating factor is its proximity to Poland, where disease pressure is quite high and the virus appears to be spreading among the wild boar population. This means that despite fencing measures there could be new infections from the Polish side.
Latest count in Germany: 594 wild boar carcasses
At the last count, in early February 2021, 594 carcasses were reported since infections began in September 2020. So far, 149 have been reported in January, 25% of the total. Most likely, additional cases will add to the number for January. December turned out to be the worst month so far with 202 wild boar victims.
Almost 600 cases in 4 core zones give the impression that the German ASF situation will surpass that of Belgium. When ASF broke out there in September 2018, 833 positive carcasses were ultimately found. The country was declared ASF-free by the EU and the World Organization for Animal Health last autumn. The Czech Republic has also succeeded in eradicating the virus from its wild boar population in recent years. Between 220 and 230 wild boars were infected there.
ASF situation in western Poland
On the Polish side of the border, in western Poland alone, the total number of cases in January was over 3,000. At the beginning of February 2021, a total of 3,106 wild boars with African swine fever were found since a cluster of the virus was discovered in western Poland in November 2019. With 2,560 cases, the Lebusz province alone was hardest hit.
Reports are still coming in for January 2021, but for December 2020 the picture is pretty clear – the month was the worst yet with 501 reported infected boars. The prospects for the near future do not look bright either – the winter months are usually the time when most ASF victims can be found. In the winter of 2019-2020, the months of January and February turned out to be the strongest in terms of ASF cases in western Poland: 410 and 445 respectively.
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