HANNOVER (dpa-AFX) – Lower Saxony’s Minister of Agriculture, Barbara Otte-Kinast, is working to shorten the closure time for farms affected by swine fever. The Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture announced on Sunday that the CDU politician had sent a fire letter to Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens). After the outbreak of African swine fever, which is highly contagious for animals but harmless to humans, in early July in a farm in Emsbüren, a restricted zone was set up for 300 farms with around 200,000 animals in the Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim districts. According to the specifications of the EU Commission, this ten-kilometer exclusion zone is to be maintained until October 14th.
Otte-Kinast called for the deadline to be shortened to September 3rd. The negotiations are taking place between Berlin and Brussels. It is up to the European Commission to decide whether the period of suspension will actually be reduced.
So far, all test results have been negative, said Otte-Kinast. In addition, the incubation period of up to 15 days had passed without another case, and the entire exclusion zone was free of swine fever. The minister referred to the animal welfare problems to be expected. According to this, there are currently around 21,000 overweight pigs in the barns of the exclusion zone, and almost 6,000 animals are added every week. The existence of the affected farmers is threatened./mts/DP/mis