African swine fever has been detected in samples from a dead boar found southeast of Fagersta in Västmanland, according to information from the Swedish Veterinary Institute SVA.
Seven dead boars were found in the Fagersta area, about 17 miles northwest of Stockholm.
This disease is very serious for wild boars and pigs, and often results in pigs dying within a week of infection.
People do not catch the disease, but can be carriers of the plague.
Karl Ståhl of the State Veterinary Institute in Sweden told Swedish news agency TT that it was currently unknown how the infection had reached the country.
– To this day, we don’t know how transmission got here, and this is a huge leap from nearby cases detected elsewhere in Europe. We therefore predict that the transmission may have come via humans and not animals, he said and continued:
– Extensive infection tracing is now being carried out in Europe. There are countries that have succeeded in eradicating this disease, and that is also our national goal.
African swine fever has been detected in several European countries in recent years. But according to Norway, the disease has not been registered in the Nordic countries Veterinary Institute. Most animals that contract this virus will die.
Denmark, which is one of the world’s biggest pork exporters, has put up a border fence out of fear that the infected wild boar came from Germany.
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