HEAL ▶▶▶TH Surprise that ASF has not reached Germany yet
Together with his son Erik, pig producer Erik Thijssen, aged 57, has been running a 1,600 sow farm in Grüngräbchen, a village in the Ger- man state Saxony, since 2009. He is deeply worried about the occur- rence of ASF in Poland. Thijssen says, “The danger comes from Poland. Over there pig farms have been infected with the vi- rus. We are onlookers, but we cannot do anything about it.” Thijssen, who used to be a pork producer in the Netherlands, does not want to think about the mo- ment when the first ASF-infected wild boar is found in Germany. Then Germany will lose its status as an ASF-free country, and exports to lucrative markets to Asia will drop away, he says. Thijssen: “There are many wild boar over here. The wild boar that was found closest to Germany was 10km from the bor- der. I am still very surprised that the virus hasn’t al- ready reached Germany. But it can also be trans- ferred into Germany through humans. In Poland, it suddenly jumped to the west by 400km.” Saxony placed a mobile fence along the Polish bor- der to keep out the wild boar from Poland. Thijssen is not optimistic about the protective effects – after all, it is an electric sheep fence. In addition, there are places where humans can cross. Thijssen says, “If
they want to do things well, then a permanent fence needs to be erect- ed, just like the Danes did. On the other side, one cannot expect the Germans to close their entire eastern border. So reality has proved the authorities right.”
Erik Thijssen, pork producer in Eastern Germany.
The abundance of wild boar is due to a couple of good seasons with plenty of food and relatively mild winters. Hunters cannot be expected to shoot a lot of wild boar, Thijssen says. The major- ity are hobby hunters who also have regular jobs. He adds, “Politically there is no support for the shooting of a substantial amount of wild boar.” Thijssen says that all pig farms in the vicinity of his farm have constructed a permanent fence around the farms to keep out wild boar. The ani- mals would normally not be able to get into the direct vicinity of a farm. In Saxony state, the au- thorities are suggesting a stop to breeding if ASF
occurs on a farm. Thijssen says, “I detest those words – I once had a similar experience in the Netherlands.
In my perspective, the authorities do not understand the impact of a measure like that. But that, I suppose, is logical when one is a bit further away from the pig industry.”
fections in wild boar do not paint a particularly rosy picture – after five months, the number of infected wild boar is higher than in the whole of 2019. That is to the detriment of the Pol- ish union of pork producers. Chairman Aleksander Dargiewicz says that the Polish veterinary services are not in control of the situation – especially not when it comes to reducing ASF levels in wild boar. The Polish pig producers (Polpig) feel the government has been responding slowly and does not listen to their advice –
for instance about the necessity of building a wall at the east- ern border, which Polpig has been recommending since at least 2014. Four years later, the Polish authorities did present a plan, but it is yet to carried out. In addition, the proposal to reduce the number of wild boar drastically to 0.1 wild boar per km2
has not been realised – on the contrary, the number
A sign warning about ASF in Eastern Poland. 14
of infected wild boar has only increased. Dargiewicz states that half of the country is infected. The only positive develop- ment in his opinion is the reduction in the number of pig farms that contract ASF annually – which means that en- hanced levels of biosecurity are paying off. Polish farms with 50 pigs or more were entitled to a subsidy of a maximum of € 22,350 to enhance biosecurity levels on-farm. It is clear now that Poland hasn’t won the fight with ASF yet. Polpig fears for the continued existence of the industry now the virus has reached the province Greater Poland, where about 36% of the national pig herd is based. The pork pro- ducers are mainly concerned about the rejected requests for compensation due to the culling of herds. Polpig says that re- jection is reasonable when the pork producer has intentional- ly neglected biosecurity, but in all other cases it is not. Pig producers in Poland are already suffering from an enormous drop in income due to ASF – in the west this could be as high as 40%. This is mainly related to a lack of slaughter capacity in the surveillance zones, as there are transport limitations.
▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 6, 2020
PHOTO: IWONA MARKOWSKA-DANIEL
PHOTO: ERIK THIJSSEN
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