Germany has new African swine fever case in farm pigs, state reports

Hamburg: A case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in farm pigs in east Germany, authorities said on Thursday.

It was confirmed on a pig breeding farm in Greifswald in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the state's agriculture ministry said.

China and a series of other pork buyers banned imports of German pig meat in September 2020 after the first ASF case was confirmed in wild animals, with several cases in farm animals following.

Discoveries on farms will make it harder for Germany to get the export bans lifted, analysts say. China's import ban remains in force.

The disease is not dangerous to humans but it is fatal to pigs. Many countries impose bans on pork from regions suffering from the disease, distorting world food trade.

Wild boar coming into Germany from Poland are believed to have spread the disease to the country's eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, where several thousand cases in wild animals have occurred.

The German government has been seeking to contain and eradicate ASF in the east partly by reducing the wild boar population.

But the country's large number of wild boar, which roam over large distances, has made containment difficult. (Reporting by Michael Hogan; editing by Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan)