Classical swine fever found in northeastern France

Lead: Paris, April 23 (Reuters) - a dead boar with swine fever was found in the basses rengten area of northeastern France on April 10, the French Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday Although classical swine fever is harmless to human body, it will bring serious damage to pig production The Ministry of Agriculture said it was worrisome that the swine fever incident may not be the only one, and the surrounding pig farms are also at risk of infection "The virus will spread from wild boar to domestic pig The discovery of wild boars with swine fever also means a threat Once a pig is infected with this virus, it will bring huge economic losses " The Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement After the French food safety agency (nfssa) confirmed the swine fever incident on Monday, the Ministry of agriculture has designated a restricted area and encouraged farmers in the area to take defensive measures to prevent any contact between their domestic pigs and sick wild boars The statement added that the sale of pigs from farms in the restricted area to other European countries was strictly prohibited A spokesman for the Ministry of agriculture also said: "CSFV is a highly contagious disease, which can be transmitted through direct contact between animals, or through other indirect ways such as meat, clothing and even soil." Basses rengten has been under surveillance since several cases of classical swine fever in Germany and Luxembourg last October Because this area is only a few kilometers away from Germany and Luxembourg The spokesman also said it was the first case of classical swine fever in France since December 2001 This does not mean that France has since lost its international status as a non epidemic area of swine fever, which is only for domestic pigs France was granted this status in 1993 According to the statistics of the French Ministry of agriculture, nearly 400000 pigs were destroyed in 45 cases of swine fever in Spain between 2001 and 2002 In 2000, 16 cases of swine fever were found in the UK, and 72000 pigs were destroyed.