Forchheim (dpa / lsw) – The cause of the outbreak of African swine fever in a farm in Forchheim (Emmendingen district) has still not been finally clarified. According to information from Monday, the Ministry of Agriculture from the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, has not yet received the result of the full sequencing of the pathogen found in southern Baden. This could possibly give an indication of the region of origin of the virus, explained a spokesman.
At the end of May, 16 of 35 domestic pigs died within five days on the farm. The remaining animals were killed. The facility has been decontaminated. Search dogs in the forests around Forchheim were looking for wild boars that might have died. So far there have been no other suspected cases or outbreaks in Baden-Württemberg, the spokesman said.
African swine fever is a viral infection that only affects wild boar and domestic pigs. It is almost always fatal in animals and cannot be cured. It is harmless to humans or other animal species.
At the weekend, cases in pig farms in Brandenburg and for the first time in Lower Saxony became known. The first case in Germany was confirmed on September 10, 2020 in a wild boar in Brandenburg. There were also proven diseases in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony. In mid-July last year, swine fever spread to domestic pigs in livestock for the first time in Germany – again in Brandenburg.
