Finland Confirms First African Swine Fever Case

Finland has confirmed its first case of African swine fever after laboratory tests detected the virus in a wild boar near the eastern village of Virolahti, close to the Russian border, the Finnish Food Authority announced on Thursday.

African swine fever does not pose a risk to humans, but it is highly contagious and almost always fatal to domestic pigs and wild boar. Since spreading from Africa to Europe and Asia, the virus has caused major losses to pig herds, prompted trade restrictions and disrupted global pork markets.

According to the Natural Resources Institute Finland, the country's wild boar population was estimated at about 2,380 animals at the beginning of January.

In recent years, African swine fever has also been detected in Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Serbia and Spain, leading to large-scale culls of domestic pigs and restrictions aimed at containing the disease.

(Reuters, Lud)