The swine fever outbreak in Sweden is not only a threat to animal health and pig production in Sweden, but in the entire Nordic region, believes Bjørn Gimming, chairman of the board of the farmers’ organization Norges Bondelag.
– This is a situation we have feared since Sweden accepted wild boar as part of Swedish fauna.
In Sweden, there are around 300,000 wild boars, in Norway significantly fewer, between 1,000 and 2,000. The outbreak of swine fever has changed the strategy from having the smallest possible number of wild boars to exterminating them.
– It is a direct consequence of the detection of swine fever in Swedish wild boars.
Limit the strain
Bjørn Gimming and the Norwegian Farmers’ Union are now calling on Sweden to change its strategy and limit the wild boar population as much as possible.
– The risk of swine fever is closely related to the amount of wild boar. African swine fever can only exist in a country that has wild boar and then it would be a wise strategy to reduce the amount of wild boar and also the risk of African swine fever.
An outbreak does not only affect the pig farmers, he points out, but also other activities in the affected areas such as forestry and outdoor activities.
– The possible positive effect of having wild boar in a country is minimal compared to the negative ones. In addition to the risk of African swine fever, the wild boar causes traffic accidents and damage to both agricultural land and private property, emphasizes Gimming.
Anxiety in Finland
Even in Finland, the Swedish swine fever outbreak has caused concern, writes Hunting and hunters. A working group within the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has put forward a proposal for extensive shooting in order to eventually halve the population.
Finland today has a wild boar population that is much smaller than the Swedish one, between 2,500 and 3,000 animals, but the group believes that an outbreak of swine fever would be easier to get rid of if the population was even smaller.