Finland faces tougher swine fever fight than Estonia

Finland aims to eradicate African swine fever within a year, but its situation is more difficult than Estonia’s because wild boar cross the border from Russia, Yle reports. The disease has so far been found only in wild boar in Finland, while it has also spread to pig farms in Estonia.

African swine fever was detected in Finland in late July, when a wild boar in Virolahti, in the Kymenlaakso region, tested positive. There are now 32 confirmed cases, all in the Virolahti area, with the latest infections confirmed on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Finnish Food Authority aim to eradicate the disease within a year. Measures include fencing off the outbreak area. The authorities have taken steps similar to those used in Sweden, where African swine fever was detected in 2023 and eradicated within a year.

However, Finland and Sweden cannot be fully compared. Finland shares a border with Russia, where African swine fever has been detected and wild boar move freely across the border. Sweden has no equivalent border.

The Swedish outbreak probably began with a rubbish bin. The Finnish Food Authority suspects that the disease entered Finland with wild boar from Russia. Infected dead wild boar have been found close to the eastern border, on both sides of the Vaalimaa border crossing.

The Finnish Food Authority has not received information from Russia about the spread of the disease since 2022.

Estonia continues production despite the disease

African swine fever was first detected in Estonia in 2014. The disease became an epidemic last year, but Estonia is still believed to have more than 10,000 wild boar, several times the Finnish population.

Eero Rautiainen, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s food and research department, says the countries also differ because African swine fever has so far been found only in wild boar in Finland. In Estonia, it has spread to pig farms.

Only a few pig farms operate within Finland’s current restricted zone. Most of the country’s pork production is concentrated in western Finland.

The ministry says it would be difficult to prevent the disease from spreading to pig farms if infected wild boar were present in their surroundings. For that reason, it wants to prevent African swine fever from spreading across Finland.

Timo Heikkilä, chair of the Finnish Pig Entrepreneurs Association, does not consider it likely that the disease would spread from wild boar to farmed pigs in Finland.

“Finns understand how to operate in a situation involving risks. Biosecurity and other forms of risk management are well developed,” Heikkilä says.

Atria invests in Estonian pig farming

Finnish food company Atria has pork production in Estonia. Last year, the disease spread to Estonian pig farms, including Atria’s facilities.

At the beginning of June 2026, Atria announced that it would build a new pig farm in Estonia at a cost of four million euros.

Markku Hirvijärvi, Atria’s director responsible for the company’s meat business and exports, says practices for managing the risk of African swine fever are an everyday part of production in Estonia.

“Atria’s experience shows that production can be carried out safely when biosecurity is maintained at a high level and possible disease cases are addressed quickly in cooperation with the authorities,” Hirvijärvi says.

According to Hirvijärvi, Estonia shows that pork production can continue in a country where African swine fever has been part of everyday life for a long time.

Most of the pork produced by Atria and other Estonian pig farms is sold on the domestic market. Pork products cannot be exported to China from countries where African swine fever has been detected.

From Finland, Atria has exported parts of pig carcasses to China, including trotters.

An Estonian consumes about 40 kilograms of pork a year, while a Finnish consumer eats less than 30 kilograms.

Estonia has more wild boar than Finland

The number of wild boar in Estonia is estimated to exceed 10,000, while the population in Finland is much smaller. In Finland, the infected dead wild boar have been found in the core area of the restricted zone, where restrictions apply to activities including mechanised work in forests and gatherings.