The spread of African swine fever has already had major consequences. An area of 1,000 square kilometers has been cordoned off in Västmanland and Dalarna. The public is not allowed to move in the forest area, protective hunting must be conducted on the wild boar, the forestry industry is affected and domestic pigs within the infected area must be forcibly slaughtered.
But the State Veterinary Medical Institute, SVA, was alerted for almost two weeks about dead wild boars before it was possible to diagnose swine fever.
The hunter Per Granström reported a dead wild boar in Fagersta to SVA already on August 25 and another just two days later. But since it was not about more than three dead animals, no veterinarian was sent out to take the samples directly, but SVA sent a sample kit by post.
– It is normal for us to have reports like this. Last year we received 74 reports of wild boar and so far 50 this year. There are wild boars that could have died from any cause and also other animals, says Erika Chenais.
Couldn’t post over the weekend
In addition to the time it took for the sample kit to arrive, there was a further delay when the sample had to be mailed back.
– We can only send on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It must not be left at a postal terminal over the weekend. So we couldn’t send the sample back until Monday, September 4th. I think that we and SVA have acted as quickly as we could, says Per Granström DN.
According to Erika Chenais, the processing time was normal.
Could the spread not have increased during this time and made the work to eliminate the infection more difficult?
– When we look at these carcasses, we can see that the infection has been here for one to two months. We do not believe that this has affected the spread of infection or changed the possibilities for combat in any way, says Erika Chenais.