HAMBURG (Reuters) – One more case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in a wild boar in the eastern German region of Brandenburg, Germany’s federal agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.
The new discoveries bring the total number of confirmed cases to 71 since the first one on Sept. 10. All were in wild animals with no farm pigs affected.
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 and German prices to fall.
German pig farmers are currently suffering a double blow of lower prices and reduced slaughterhouse capacity following the coronavirus crisis, German agriculture minister Julia Kloeckner said on Friday.
But Kloeckner said state aid for the pig market such as subsidised storage of unsold pork is currently not justified.
German farming associations also say large numbers of unsold pigs are having to remain on farms, despite having reached the correct size for slaughtering.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan; Editing by Louise Heavens)
