“Rosselkhoznadzor finds it possible that the rapid spread of African swine fever in Europe is connected with infected animal products entering the meat processing chain” the agency said.
The Rosselkhoznadzor’s officials underlined, that the new outbreak was reported on a small farm in Emmendingen (Baden-Württemberg), less than 7 km from the French border and more than 500 km away from the infected zones in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony.
The affected farm is an organic wean-to-finish facility with 35 animals.
A similar case was registered in Italy, experts say. Wild boars living in the natural park in Rome, started dying from ASF. At the same time, the nearest outbreaks were reported in Piedmont and Liguria, located at a 380 km distance from the capital.
“The significant distance between new outbreaks in Germany and Italy and the main disease clusters proves that the emergence of the disease is caused primarily by human activities,” the Rosselkhoznadzor explained.
According to experts, food waste is considered to be the most probable source of infection. “In this case one can presume that the pigs infected with ASF entered the processing chain amid the high traceability of raw materials and products, continuously declared by EU veterinary services,” pointed out the experts.
