Copenhagen: Authorities in Denmark on Friday urged hunters, truck drivers, and farmers to use extra care in cleaning their equipment and to avoid importing meat products following the latest report on African aunt fever cases in neighboring countries in Germany.
The case of swine flu is reported in the German region of less than 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the Danish border.
“Only one case of African pig fever on Danish land will result in a loss in billions,” said Signe Balslev, a veterinarian with Denmark Veterinary and Food Administration.
About 90% of the production of Danish pigs is exported, starting almost half of all agricultural exports and for more than 5% of the total exports of the state, according to official figures.
Danish pork goes to more than 140 countries, with the largest market into Germany, England, Poland, China, Japan, Italy, Russia and Sweden.
Balslev said it was “really important” that hunter and truck driver cleaning clothes, footwear, equipment, and trucks after handling animals, while agricultural workers must “not bring animal food to Denmark.” He said infection “can hide on the ground under boots, on weapons and other equipment as well as foods such as sausages spiced or smoked meat.” Unlike swine flu, African pig fever does not affect humans.
Previously appearing among wild boar and agricultural pigs in several European countries, including Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Germany and Hungary, he said.
In 2019, Denmark set up a 70 kilometer (43.4 miles) fence along the German border to protect the Danish pig industry, by preventing the intersection of wild pigs from Germany and breed with agricultural pigs or may cause disease.
The case of Germany’s first African pig fever was confirmed a year ago in the state of Brandenburg, near the Polish border.
The first case in domestic pigs was confirmed in the same state in July.
The Uke Feiler, a Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Germany, said on Friday that the situation was “dynamic” and that “the pressure of the infection from Poland remained high,” the DPA German news agency.
He said that 2,070 infected wild boars have so far been recorded in Germany, 1,622 of them in Brandenburg and 448 in Saxony, other eastern countries.
In household pigs, the virus has been detected on two small farms and in organic farming with 200 animals in Brandenburg, a East Germany state that surrounds Berlin.
Feiler said that the steps taken so far have maintained a disease “contained in areas that are very limited in Brandenburg and Saxony,” and that domestic pigs have been spared from exceptions to animals on three farms in the exception zone.
It is not clear why Danes reacts now with the situation.