HAMBURG (Reuters) – One more case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in a wild boar in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, Germany’s federal agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
The discovery bring the total number of confirmed cases to 50 since the first one on Sept. 10. All were in wild animals with no farm pigs affected, the ministry said.
The latest cases were found in the area of the first discoveries, the ministry said.
Germany’s Friedrich-Loeffler scientific institute had confirmed the latest animal had ASF, the ministry said. The ministry has previously warned that more cases in wild boar have to be expected as the disease is highly infectious.
China and a series of other pork buyers banned imports of German pork in September after the first case was confirmed, causing Chinese pork prices to surge.
But German pig prices remained unchanged this week, continuing a stable trend since the sharp drop after the first ASF case, as dealers hope for more German pork sales inside the European Union.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by Louise Heavens)
