African swine fever has occurred in a third federal state in Germany. On Monday, November 15, the virus was confirmed on a farm near the city of Rostock in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The federal state is the 3rd in Germany to be infected with the ASF virus. It was the only state in Germany bordering Poland that had not reported any outbreaks of ASF, either in wild boar or in pigs.
ASF virus at a finisher site
The virus was confirmed at a fattening pig site in Lalendorf, about 30 km from Rostock, with 4,038 pigs on site. At a press conference, it was stated that on November 12, various animals showed suspicious symptoms and died, followed by 25 over the weekend and another 20 on Monday. The first PCR tests were positive. Germany’s national reference laboratory, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, later confirmed that the ASF virus had entered the company premises. All pigs on the farm have been culled and regular ASF zoning and monitoring is applied.
How the virus got into the farm is still unclear, as it is about 100 km from the surveillance zones in the infected border states of Brandenburg and Saxony.
So far, no wild boar infected with ASF in pigs have been reported in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Press conference on the ASF outbreak
Till Backhaus, Minister of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, will hold a press conference on Tuesday, November 16th. On Monday night, he called for extra attention to biosecurity to prevent the virus from spreading further.
