France in maximum alert for the PPA

On January 9, in one of the hunting raids that were carried out in the Wallonia region, affected by the PPA, to diminish the wild boar populations in the border area with France, 2 of the wild boars gave positive to the PPA .

The aspect that worries the French authorities is because the positive specimens of PPA were part of a larger group of wild boars (8 wild boars in total, 4 were killed and 4 fled, and 2 were positive).

This fact has raised all the alarms in France against the possibility that the PPA crosses the border. For this reason, the French authorities have expanded the buffer zone and have built 30 kilometers of tanks to prevent the passage of wild boars from Belgium into France, and now an additional 15 km fence has been installed on the French border.

In the neighbouring Belgian region of Wallonia, precautionary sacrifice had already been carried out in the autumn of 4,000 pigs and, until March 2020, it is expected to eliminate half of the current wild boar population, which is based on around 30,000 specimens. It is precisely in one of these raids where they have been killed the wild boars.

The preoccupation of the French pig farmers is very high and the national device of fight against the PPA has been reinforced then, to detect a case in an operation, France would lose its status of undamaged country and the markets would be closed to him export of pork.

Photo: Jonas Renner

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