France is considering building a fence on its border with Germany to keep out wild boar and prevent a devastating African swine fever (ASF) outbreak, as it increases surveillance along the border.
ASF was discovered in western Germany for the first time in the summer. A few weeks it was detected in a domestic pig herd for the first time in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, moving the virus significantly closer to the French border.
Rhineland-Palatinate is to the west of Hesse, where ASF struck in wild boar for the first time in June, not long after which, in July, it was discovered in domestic pigs, not far from Frankfurt, for the first time. A third state in western Germany, Baden-Württemberg, recently reported its first case in wild boar.
“In view of the recent progression of ASF in wild boar in Germany, the ministry has raised the ASF surveillance … in the departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle,” the agriculture ministry said in a statement, referring to two northeastern areas of France that border Germany, Reuters reported.
The French farming ministry is examining the possibility of setting up fences along the German border to stop the disease, a tactic it previously used to prevent ASF spreading from Belgium.
Authorities are also in contact with local hunters to regulate wild boar populations, an approach also used in the southeast near Italy. Farmer groups last week called on the authorities to establish wild boar-free zones near Germany such as those established along the Belgian border several years ago, according to Reuters.
The virus has also been spreading alarmingly in Italy in recent months, generating concern about the knock-on impact on the domestic industry.