German authorities say it is only a matter of time before the dreaded African swine fever reaches the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. Denmark is watching with concern and has already taken part in 'exercises' in Germany for a possible outbreak.
Agricultural officials in Kiel say it is no longer a question of if but when the first infected wild boars will appear there. The count for 2024 in Germany is already at 114 ASF cases. These infected wild boars have all been found in the eastern states of Saxony and Brandenburg so far; 73 in the region between Dresden and the Polish border.
A few years ago, the Danes put up a fence of 70 kilometers long along the Danish-German border in South Jutland. The fence is not thick but is one and a half meters high. The border is not hermetically sealed, but has about 20 openings for highways and rivers and canals.
Cameras are used to check whether wild boars still enter the country. Small animals are welcome, because in order not to frustrate flora and fauna completely, small passages have been made here and there.
If Denmark is hit by ASF, this could be costly to export revenues, as markets such as China will stop importing pork in the event of contamination.
"We have been following the situation in Germany for a long time. The disease is widespread throughout Germany. So now we hope that the fence for wild boars can prevent infected animals from reaching Denmark," Jens Munk Ebbesen from the Danish Agricultural & Wildlife Federation told German media.
An exercise in the Segeberg forest in southern Schleswig-Holstein recently tested how quickly a quarantine zone can be set up and how a larger area can be cordoned off if infected wild boars appear, the German SHZ newspapers wrote.