African swine fever detected for the first time in NRW

Düsseldorf. The first case of African swine fever (ASF) has been detected in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI), the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, has confirmed the presence of the virus in a dead wild boar found in the Sauerland region, according to the NRW Ministry of Agriculture. A hunter found the carcass in the Olpe district.

"The primary goal is to prevent the spread of the local case of ASF in the wild boar population," said North Rhine-Westphalia's Agriculture Minister Silke Gorißen (CDU). "I appeal to our pig farmers to pay particular attention to the well-known biosecurity measures to protect domestic pig populations from ASF, especially now," the minister continued.

African swine fever is harmless to humans. The same applies to domestic and farm animals other than pigs. However, infection with the ASF virus is almost always fatal for domestic and wild pigs. Farmers therefore fear the spread of the disease.

Swine fever, which originally spread in Africa, was first detected in the European Union in 2014. According to the German Hunting Association, there have been several thousand confirmed cases in wild boars in Brandenburg, Saxony, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Baden-Württemberg since the outbreak of the disease in 2020.

RND/dpa