Deadly pig virus found in wild boar in Belgium

By Agnieszka de Souza | Bloomberg News

A deadly swine virus has been found in northwestern Europe for the first time in three decades, endangering pork production of the world's largest exporter at a time when China is also fighting the disease.

The Belgian authorities said Thursday that two cases of wild boar carrying African swine fever had been confirmed near the village of Etalle, near the French border. Although the virus has not yet reached Belgian pig farms, this is the first case recorded in the north-west of the European Union since 1986, according to Rabobank International.

The virus does not affect humans, but it has no cure and can be 100% lethal for pigs, posing a serious threat to pork production and exports. It appeared in the European Union in 2014, but has been confined to the eastern regions, especially in the Baltic countries, Poland and Romania. The French authorities said Thursday that Belgian cases represented an unprecedented spread of the disease.

"If there is a serious epidemic in an area densely populated with hog farms, this could have very significant consequences," said Justin Sherrard, animal protein strategist at Rabobank in Utrecht. However, there are "biosecurity measures that seem to have worked quite well in large parts of Europe," he said.

Belgian cases have been recorded about 60 kilometers from Germany, the largest pork producer in the Union, which has so far avoided the disease. The German Ministry of Agriculture has stressed the strict compliance with biosecurity measures in pig farms and completes a bill to fight against an outbreak of wild boar, adds the statement.

"I take the new situation very seriously," said Thursday the German Minister of Agriculture, Julia Kloeckner. "African swine fever has long been a threat to Germany and our preparations for the crisis are underway."

Epidemics in the block have spread to about 200 kilometers per year in the region, resulting in annual losses estimated at several billion euros. The picking of infected animals and the imposition of strict containment measures are the only tools available to limit the spread. More recently, Romania has been forced to slaughter thousands of pigs.

China, the world's largest pork producer and consumer, has run to contain the deadly virus in the eastern provinces. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the ease of transmission and the wide geographical distribution of the disease could significantly affect the country's animal population and pork production.