Finnish pig farmers fear African swine fever will deepen crisis

The first confirmed case of African swine fever in Finland has left pig farmers fearing that falling domestic producer prices and a prolonged export halt could push some farms out of business, Yle reports.

The disease was found in a wild boar in Virolahti on Thursday, July 30. It is fatal to pigs, wild boar and miniature pigs but does not infect humans.

Atte Ryösö, a pig farmer in Lappeenranta, said the arrival of the disease had been expected. His farm is in Partala, about 20 kilometres from the eastern border, near the disease control zone.

Ryösö said his farm’s biosecurity measures were already in place. The doors of the pig houses are kept closed, footwear is changed when entering, and staff pass through disinfection baths.

“For now, nothing changes because the biosecurity measures have already been in place,” Ryösö told Yle.

The disease is expected to stop Finnish pork exports abroad for the time being. Ryösö’s farm sells its meat domestically, but he fears that a larger supply of pork in Finland will push down the producer price.

“If ships start being turned away, much more pork will remain in Finland. You could imagine that the producer price would fall,” Ryösö said.

He said the producer price was already too low, while production costs such as freight charges had increased. Ryösö said he was constantly assessing where the limit of economically viable production lay.

“But who dares to be the one who turns off the lights last and ends their life’s work?” he said.

Sami Yli-Rahnasto, a pig farmer in Kauhajoki, said the disease could trigger a new crisis in the sector that not all farms would survive.

“The price of pork is already at an unsustainable level,” Yli-Rahnasto said.

He has run a farrow-to-finish pig farm in Harjankylä, Kauhajoki, for more than 30 years. The Suupohja region also has a large wild boar population.

Yli-Rahnasto said pig farms had already done much to avoid contact with wild boar, but the virus could spread through several routes, including tourism and hunting, vehicle tyres, equipment and bedding material.

“I am seriously afraid that not all farms will survive,” he said. He added that reopening export markets could take years to negotiate.

Timo Heikkilä, chair of Suomen Sikayrittäjät, an organisation representing Finnish pig entrepreneurs, said farmers were now focusing more on biosecurity measures than on the economic impact.

Some farmers were considering fencing their farms. Heikkilä said he had installed a fence around his own farm in Rusko, in Southwest Finland, a year ago.

“Everyone knows this will have a negative economic impact. The focus now is more on how I can prevent infectious diseases from spreading,” Heikkilä said.

According to Heikkilä, the risk of the disease spreading from wild boar to domestic pigs is real in areas covered by the control measures. He said fencing, changing clothes before entering a pig house and showering were necessary precautions.

African swine fever is a haemorrhagic fever caused by the ASF virus. There is no vaccine or treatment. The virus can be spread by people, wild boar and other animals, and can be carried in meat products, objects and clothing. Finland had not recorded the disease before the Virolahti finding.