African swine fever: FW MPs oppose Environment Minister Glauber – Bavaria

The state parliamentary group of the Free Voters (FW) is not known for openly fought disputes and in this case too there is no need to exaggerate and build up the process into a full-fledged argument that has been started. No, this is certainly not a case of four MPs breaking up with one of their ministers. But it’s all remarkable – because otherwise there is rarely any noticeable rumble in the FW.

The reason for this unusual case of disagreement is a protective measure against the impending threat of African swine fever (ASF). ASF is an infectious disease that is harmless to humans and is transmitted by a virus that can only infect pigs – from animal to animal or via contaminated material. For them the disease is almost always fatal. The first case in Germany was recorded in Brandenburg in 2020.

Since then, there have been numerous other outbreaks in domestic and wild boars, including the first in Hesse in June – just 40 kilometers from the Bavarian border. Because a wild boar had died there from the disease, the Environment Ministry, led by FW politician Thorsten Glauber, ordered the construction of electric fences on federal highway 469.

Such and similar fences are common on federal highways and especially motorways as protective devices to contain animal diseases; in total they are located along a length of 500 kilometers on Bavarian traffic routes – for example on Autobahn 3 in Lower Bavaria or on Autobahn 6 in the Upper Palatinate in the east of the Free State , because the virus is already more widespread in neighboring Eastern European countries than in the West.

Electric fences have been in place on federal highway 469 since August to contain African swine fever. (Photo: Thomas Zöller)

The district administrative authorities are responsible for the construction of the fences, according to the state government’s so-called African swine fever master plan, which was updated in June. In Lower Franconia these were the district offices of Miltenberg and Aschaffenburg, on whose behalf workers from the state building authority and volunteers from the technical relief organization first created space for the electric fences, then covered the ground with fleece so that wild boars could not dig under them, and finally opened the boundaries a length of almost 25 kilometers. The electric fences can be imagined visually like those on a pasture. They consist of three strands, so they are significantly less robust than a permanently installed fence.

“A solid fence like the one in Hesse would require less maintenance and be safer!”

And this is exactly where the problem lies from the point of view of the four FW critics. Recently they, namely MPs Ulrike Müller, Marina Jakob and Roland Weigert, set off on a “prevention visit” to the fence at the invitation of their Lower Franconian colleague Thomas Zöller. In view of this, as Zöller let the public know in a press release, they “immediately asked themselves whether it would not make more sense and be more cost-effective in the long run to install a fixed fence instead of the vulnerable structure”.

The prevention visitors also found the answer to the question in question after spending two days exchanging ideas with local politicians, hunters, a forestry technician, farmers and animal disease experts from the State Office for Health and Food Safety, visiting the fence and a forest and listening to a specialist lecture. “After discussions with everyone who might be affected, we were of the opinion that a solid fence like the one in Hesse would require less maintenance and be safer!” said Zöller. Zöller explained that the four FW MPs had “already raised the issue” with colleague Glauber’s Ministry of the Environment. And at Main Echo If they immediately said, that’s just how it is in Bavaria with the opposition: “As a government faction, you have to do that yourself.”

Search dogs and drones in use to track down wild boar carcasses

Of course, Zöller contradicted this. The FW delegation was “not there as opposition to its own ministers,” he told the SZ, “but as a practical check to see whether what was being thought at the desk in Munich against the incursion of African swine fever into the Bavarian Lower Main was actually true functions.” On Desk in Munich – is this another tip towards the Ministry of the Environment?

In any case, they can report an interim success there: the fence is working so far, and there are still no cases of African swine fever in Bavaria. In order to prevent the spread of the disease in the Free State, the state government has not only purchased 1,700 kilometers of quickly erectable fences. It also encourages hunters in the border region with Hesse to increase hunting of wild boar with financial incentives – 100 euros per wild boar – in order to break possible chains of infection.

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Search dogs and drones with thermal imaging cameras are also used to track down carcasses. The Miltenberg district has also issued a general animal health order, according to which dead wild boars must be reported immediately to the veterinary office and hunters must first take a blood sample from animals they have shot before they can use the animals if the ASF result is negative. This is why the measures are so important to prevent infections in domestic pigs. According to the Bavarian State Office for Statistics, 2,435,500 pigs live in the Free State with almost 3,400 keepers. In the event of an outbreak, they risk major financial losses – and many healthy animals face the premature end of their lives. “The only way to contain the spread of the disease is to completely kill affected pig herds,” says the Bavarian Farmers’ Association’s website.

And what does the house led by Glauber say about his parliamentary group colleagues’ proposal for a fence exchange? When asked, the short-term use of “quickly erected and flexible electric fences is an effective containment measure,” especially “at the beginning of an epidemic.” The plan is now to replace the electric fences with sturdy wildlife fences; the details are currently being worked out. This should restore harmony among the free voters.

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