Denmark wants to keep AVP out of the gate

Denmark will start building a fence on the border with Germany on Monday 28 January. The fence is intended to keep out wild boars that may be infected with African swine fever.

The placement of a fence is already in place longer in the planning, but now construction is actually starting. Jakob Elleman-Jensen, the Danish Minister of Environment and Food, speaks of an economic disaster if African swine fever were to break out in the country.

Denmark therefore does not take any risks and spends about €10 million on a fence that is 70 kilometers long and 1,5 meters high. There will be holes in the fence, so that the habitat of small animals is not affected. Construction costs are dwarfed by the potential impact of an outbreak. The minister expects that the costs in the event of an outbreak could rise to €1,4 billion. 

Doubts about effectiveness
Many Danes disagree with the decision to put up a fence. They question the measure, because wild boars are good swimmers. The fence also raises eyebrows in Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark. The measure would be superfluous, because the animal disease has not been established in Germany. 

Several animal activists are also against it. They fear that the natural habitat of other animals will be disturbed and think that young boars can walk through the holes in the fence. In addition, the closest cases of African swine fever are in Poland en Belgium† both are more than 500 kilometers from the Danish border. That is also why the fence is seen by many as an unnecessary investment.

Russia expects large-scale spread
Although some Danes are shrugging off the outbreaks, Sergey Dankvert, the chairman of Russia's animal welfare and food safety agency, is convinced that the disease will spread further in Europe and Asia. “We expect African swine fever to spread to France, Germany, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines," he said at the Grüne Woche in Germany.

Tim Roetman

Tim Roetman has been working as a junior editor at livestock farming since November 2018 Boerenbusiness† He mainly writes about (price) developments in the pig and dairy market.

t.roetman@boerenbusiness. Nl

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.