African swine fever kills more than 20 wild boar in Poland

An outbreak of African swine fever in Poland near the German border has killed 21 wild boar, the agriculture minister said Wednesday.

Authorities were adding 56 kilometers (34 miles) to a previously installed 80-kilometer (48-mile) fence; local hunters were instructed to eliminate all wild boar in the area near the town of Zielona Gora; and Army soldiers were combing forests in search of fallen animals, said Agriculture Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski.

Ardanowski said the fence was aimed at protecting swine farms in the populous neighboring province near the city of Poznan. He said the disease had not been found in livestock.

More than 2,000 boar have been sickened or killed by the disease this year, most of them in the eastern region that borders Ukraine, where Ardanowski said the disease is believed to have originated.

Earlier this year, amid protests from animal rights groups, hunters killed 270,000 wild boar in eastern Poland in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading. That effort was largely successful until cases were discovered in the western part of the county last month.

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