Written by William Kellett
Five new cases of African swine fever (ASF) have been detected in wild boar in the Brandenburg region of Germany close to the Polish border.
It comes after it was announced on September 10 that a case of ASF had been detected in a dead wild boar carcass which was also in the Brandenburg region.
Also Read: Germany confirms its first case of African swine fever
The Brandenburg government has stated on its website that measures to combat ASF were “consistently implemented in the state of Brandenburg”.
“After all farmers and hunters have been informed of the situation and the core zone with a radius of at least 3km from where the infected wild boar carcass was found was completely fenced off with an electric fence on Saturday, the search for further dead wild boars is being carried out in a targeted manner.
“Outside of this, the hunting of wild boar is significantly intensified,” the statement read.
China bans German pork imports
China has said it will ban any imports of German pork after the first case of ASF was detected in Germany.
The Chinese customs office and agriculture ministry have stated that the ban will take effect immediately, and it will cover all pork products. Pork products which are already on route to China will be returned or destroyed, it said.
The ban is set to be an enormous blow for German pork producers, who exported around £924 million worth of pork to China last year.
After ASF forced China to cull around 50% of all its pigs since 2018, it turned to the global markets for pork, which was a boost for the German pork industry, but also drove up prices in Germany and around the world.
According to the German office of national statistics, the country exported around £391 million worth of pork to China between January and April 2020.
South Korea has already announced its ban on German pork imports last week. This came immediately after the suspected case of ASF was confirmed.
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