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After the confirmation of two African swine fever cases in wild boars in Belgium at almost 1 km from the border with France, Mr Didier Guillaume, Minister of Agriculture and Food of France, gathered yesterday all the national actors to decide on the strategy to be implemented immediately that allows to keep France free of the disease, because the current risk level is maximal.
The Minister has appointed Mr Loïc Gouello, general inspector of veterinary public health, as the crisis director. This crisis unit will meet this week with the national interested parties.
The 'white area', under a very high risk regarding ASF, will be established within a radius of a few kilometres around the Belgian cases, and all the wild boars within this area will have to be be culled during the next weeks. In this area, all forestry work will be cancelled, and the zone will be delimited with a fence that will be built in the coming days. All the farms in this area will be visited again to guarantee their maximum biosecurity level.
Before this serious threat, the Ministry has asked all the actors, whether professionals or not, to apply the maximum rigour to avoid the entrance of the disease in France, including the strict fulfilment of the stockbreeding biosecurity measures.
Monday, January 14th, 2019/ Ministry of Agriculture and Food/ France.
https://agriculture.gouv.fr
