Forestry billionaire Karl Hedin has a plan to stop swine fever:
Create an inner zone that is cordoned off and monitored until swine fever is gone.
– These are not unreasonable measures, but you have to do everything at the right time, says state epizootologist Karl Ståhl.
The forestry and sawmill billionaire Karl Hedin, 74, was previously suspected of wolf poisoning but was later fully acquitted of the charge of serious hunting offences. Now he is relevant again.
Through his company, Hedin owns a fifth of the forest in the infected zone of almost 1,000 square kilometers between Västmanland and Dalarna, which has been cordoned off. There are now strict restrictions imposed by the Swedish Agency for Agriculture to eliminate the spread of African swine fever.
Karl Hedin was not at all satisfied with the size of the cordoned off area. Therefore, he wrote a letter to the Swedish Board of Agriculture and demanded a change. His proposal was to fence off and monitor the tenth of the area that is most vulnerable and which he calls “zone 1”:
– I am not a trained virologist. But we talked to a virologist. We must close all gaps we can see in zone 1 immediately. That has not been done, which is a shame, says Hedin.
State epizootologist Karl Ståhl at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, SVA, says:
– What Karl Hedin has written are not unreasonable measures. That’s roughly how you think about working. But you have to do everything at the right time, he says.
“Don’t know where it isn’t”
According to Ståhl, it is too early to fence off any inner part of the entire infected zone. Although it is clear that swine fever has only been found in part of the infected zone, it is still uncertain whether it is also present in the rest of the zone.
– We know where it is, but not where it is not. It may very well be that they will soon decide to utilize the existing natural barriers and reinforce them with fences in strategic locations. But everything has its time, it’s not worth fencing off an area before you know where the infection is, says Ståhl.
Parts of Karl Hedin’s wishes were already fulfilled yesterday Tuesday. Then the Swedish Agricultural Agency decided that the forestry machines in the infected zone may be moved from there, if they are cleaned thoroughly.
– It looks much brighter now that we have solved that issue. The next step is to take out the felled timber lying by the road and in the fields. That’s three million worth of wood, says Karl Hedin.
Madeleine Haal Gertzell, group manager at the Swedish Agency for Agriculture, comments on the requirement to move cut timber:
– It is a priority issue to solve, at the same time we have to ensure that we can get safe handling of the timber out of the restricted zone.
FACT African swine fever
African swine fever has been present in Europe since 2007 and in the EU since 2014.
The general public and hunters throughout Sweden, but above all in Västmanland, are now invited to report finds of dead wild boar to SVA.
Pig keepers are asked to review their biosecurity and contact a veterinarian at signs of illness or increased mortality.
(Source: State Veterinary Medical Institute)
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