Danes’ plan for border fence to halt pig virus comes with a few wrinkles
TONDER, Denmark — Trying to halt the spread of a disease that can wipe out domestic pig populations, Denmark intends to build a fence along its border with Germany to keep out the pigs’ wild cousins. There are just a few wrinkles in the plan.
To the government’s frustration, many Danes see the fence as being about more than just swine. Depending on their backgrounds and political stripes, people have called it a possible step toward blocking refugees, a detriment to wildlife, a reminder of painful history, or a violation of the European Union ethos of invisible borders and free movement.
Oh, and there is little scientific evidence to suggest that it will work.
“We have to enter the imagination of a pig,” said Bent Rasmussen, the chief forest manager for the area, who is in charge of the project. “It’s not easy.”
The African swine fever virus poses a serious threat to production of pork, a major export for Denmark. It spreads readily and is highly resilient, capable of surviving for months in pork products and feces. There is no vaccine or treatment, and the only way to contain an outbreak is to cull the population, as Romania did recently, killing 230,000 pigs.
The virus is usually harmless to its traditional hosts, African animals like warthogs and bush pigs, as it is to people. But in domestic pigs and wild boars, it causes a hemorrhagic fever that is often lethal. In recent years, it has become widespread in Russia, and outbreaks have become increasingly frequent in other parts of Europe and Asia. In just the past few months, they have been reported in Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria and seven provinces of China.
Denmark’s $20 million answer includes a public awareness campaign, expanded permission to kill wild boar and a fence about 5 feet tall along the 42-mile land border, across the neck of the Jutland peninsula, from the North Sea to the Baltic. In France, officials this week revealed plans for fences along parts of the country’s border with Belgium, also to block African swine fever, but details and timing remained unclear.
The Danish parliament has approved the fence, and work is expected to begin early next year, though environmentalists have appealed to the EU to stop it.
But there are holes in the plan — or, more precisely, holes in the planned fence, which will have openings for 15 official border crossings, five waterways and passages for local farmers.
“My job is to disturb the wild boar as much as possible and humans and other wildlife as little as possible,” Rasmussen said.
Critics ask why that would work, given that the wild pigs are smart and curious, and regularly forage over long distances.
In a report this summer, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that “there is no evidence that large fences have been effective for the containment of wild suids,” using a word for the pig animal family.
Hans Kristensen, a hunter and founder of a Facebook group opposed to the fence, said, “It’s like creating your retirement fund by buying a lottery ticket.” He said there was no reason to think it would keep out German boars.