Illegal resting places and foreign meat can lead to new outbreaks of African swine fever.
Rubbish from truck drivers who stop where they are not allowed can spread the infection to Swedish wild boar, and by extension to domestic pigs.
– A large part of food production can be knocked out in a short time, says Hans-Ola Olsson, pig farmer.
At a turning point along the E6, a hole has been cut in the fence. In the edge of the forest on the other side, various pill packs, plastic packaging and food scraps are strewn about. Many of the packages have texts in other languages.
– What we have seen is that truck drivers, mainly from the rest of Europe, are inside and making their own rest stops, says Hans-Ola Olsson, whose pig farm is located near the turnpike.
The problem here is the trash left behind. Drivers from other countries sometimes bring food products from their home country with them. In countries where African swine fever is widespread, there is a risk that pork may contain traces of the disease. And when the remains are thrown in the forest, wild boar can eat them, and become infected. A problem for pig farmers in the area.
– Should we get African swine fever in a wild boar population in the immediate area, with the enormously large population we have in Sweden, it could spread quickly and unfortunately easily end up on our farm, says Hans-Ola Olsson.
Foreign meat
This type of turning points can be found along Swedish roads across the country. They are intended for emergency and service vehicles working along the road. It is not actually allowed for other vehicles to use the turning areas, but the fact that they are used as rest areas by truck drivers is a problem that has grown in recent years. The explanation could be that real rest areas have a lack of space, or charge a fee to stand at them.
The Swedish Agricultural Agency is working to prevent the spread of swine fever, for example signs have been set up along roads that inform about correct garbage disposal in several languages. Maria Cedersmyg is an infectious disease officer at the Swedish Agency for Agriculture.
– The way we can reach out is with information that is posted, for example, at the real rest areas, or possibly other channels, via their company. But it is difficult for us to reach out with information about people who ignore what we say, or use rest areas that do not exist where there is no garbage disposal. So it is naturally problematic, says Maria Cedersmyg.
Want fewer wild boars
The Farmers’ Confederation, LRF, sees this as a serious problem, and says that its members are very worried about outbreaks of African swine fever. Palle Borgström is chairman of LRF and he says that although information is part of the solution, he sees that another way would be more effective.
– The basic problem is that we have a very large wild boar tribe in Sweden, 300,000 animals, we have a hundred times more animals than Denmark, Norway and Finland combined. We will not reach all drivers, so we have to work with several different efforts. Reducing the wild boar population is a big effort, but informing everyone about African swine fever is also a big effort, says Palle Borgström.