nine months after the introduction, the hunting inside the in- fected area is started up. One other important measure is the search for and removal of carcasses of pigs that died of ASF. The military is involved with that; in addition, police, border control and fire fighters also help in the hunting. They often cover areas that are not accessible to regular hunters. Because of Covid-19, however, this external help is happening at a slower pace. Jażdżewski acknowledges that the infected area in western Poland has been growing in recent months, but emphasises that most expansion has happened towards the centre of Poland, not towards the German border.
Germany aiming for additional measures The German authorities are not comfortable with the pres- ence of ASF on their eastern border. A bill is ready to be sent to Germany’s parliament this autumn that will allow the con- struction of permanent fences to keep out wild boar. Current- ly two of the three states bordering Poland (Saxony and Brandenburg) have a temporary sheep fence – the case that was found 10km from the German border was close to both these states. A third state, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, an-
nounced it would be erecting a temporary fence in July. Both Saxony and Brandenburg advocate the construction of a permanent preventive fence. The Saxon state Ministry for So- cial Affairs and Cohesion, responsible for preventing the virus from entering Germany, feels that on the Polish side not a lot is happening to fight the spread of ASF. Saxony, on the other hand, is doing quite a bit in the context of ASF spread. In the first half of the year, 5,923 wild boar were investigated for ASF presence, of which 5,538 had been shot. That is a significant increase compared to 2019, when in the entire year 9,530 wild boar were tested for ASF. Hunting and testing of wild boar is happening predominantly in the districts Bautzen and Görlitz, which border Poland and are where the virus came close this spring. In addition, Saxony is using information and instruction cam- paigns to stress the risk of human behaviour introducing ASF. Hygiene measures have been installed at motorways and sec- ondary roads to prevent the virus from being introduced.
Worries continue Despite the care taken by the Polish veterinary services, the worries continue in the German states. Figures about ASF in-
▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 6, 2020 13
A dead wild boar in a field in Eastern Poland.
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