CHICK-NEWS has reported on the increasing numbers of wild boars found dead in Brandenburg State near the border with Poland. Effective October 5th, 49 individual animals have been diagnosed with African swine fever based on post-mortem specimens. It is disquieting that the most recent case was 35 miles from the first. This indicates that either wild boars that have moved across the border with Poland are either moving westward or that these animals have infected the wild boar population of Germany.
Unless authorities in Germany can effectively locate and destroy affected animals and seal the border with Poland it is unlikely that the nation will resume pork exports to China, their major market outside the EU.
The reason why China is imposing a stringent nationwide ban on import of pork is inexplicable. African swine fever has not been diagnosed in any commercial herd in Germany. The requirements imposed by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) allow for regionalization. Even if China did not have endemic African swine fever, they are legally only entitled to place a ban on imports of pork originating in the state of Brandenburg or as an extreme precaution, adjoining states.
The response of China to the outbreak of ASF in wild boars in Germany should be a warning to other nations exporting pork to China. Accordingly the U.S. should initiate intensive efforts to eradicate the domestic population exceeding 10 million boars, feral hogs and hybrids now present in approximately 30 states.