French deploy army against AVP

France has enlisted military help to stop the spread of African swine fever. Soldiers have to help the hunters in the Belgian Ardennes and the Meuse with the shooting of 500 potentially infected wild boars. 

The virus became Thursday September 13 was diagnosed in Belgium and since then France has done everything it can to ensure that the disease does not cross the border into France. Didier Guillaume, the French Minister of Agriculture, reports this.

kill 500 to 600 swine
Both the president and the prime minister have given permission to mobilize the army, the minister told television channel France2. The soldiers, together with the hunters and the French Forestry Service, will shoot the wild boars and set various traps.

"There are about 500 to 600 bears that need to be shot within 2 to 3 weeks to ensure that France remains unharmed," the minister said. This concerns boars in the buffer zone, a fenced area of ​​80 square kilometers on the French border† This is specially set up against the spread of the animal disease.

Export at risk
When France is hit by the animal disease, it will be a major blow to the pig sector in the country. And more importantly, then exports would (quite) stagnate, the French minister emphasizes.

The minister will travel to the Belgian Ardennes on Friday 25 January to chair the crisis unit. It wants to introduce more control measures to prevent the spread of the non-communicable epidemic.

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