HAMBURG (Reuters) – One more case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in a wild boar in the eastern German state of Brandenburg over the weekend, Germany’s agriculture ministry said.
The new discovery brings total confirmed cases to 35 since the first one on Sept. 10. All were in wild animals with no farm pigs affected, the ministry said on its website.
All have been found in the Brandenburg area. Germany’s Friedrich-Loeffler scientific institute had confirmed the latest animal had ASF, the ministry said.
China and a series of other pork buyers banned imports of German pork this month after the first case was confirmed, causing Chinese pork prices to surge.
The disease is not dangerous to humans but it is fatal to pigs. A massive outbreak in China, the world’s biggest pork producer, has led to hundreds of millions of pigs being culled.
The German government is considering aid to farmers after pork prices fell, agriculture minister Julia Kloeckner said on Friday.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by Kim Coghill)
