Is swine flu risk from wild boar being overstated?

Scotland’s wild boar are being monitored for African swine flu (ASF) amid fears that they could transmit the disease (News, 11 December), though some suggest the threat of an outbreak is overstated. 

ASF has been spreading through mainland Europe and there are concerns it could potentially arrive in UK through non-commercial imported meat. Some experts say the disease risk posed to domestic pigs by wild boar has been exaggerated, and the fact that imported meat is discarded poses a greater hazard to farmed animals. 

Chantal Lyons, author of Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar, told Shooting Times: “There has been a curious amount of hand-wringing over the supposed risk that Scotland’s free-living wild boar pose to the pig industry. Yet boar still exist in very low numbers across the country, and have an accordingly limited ability to catch and transmit ASF to farmed animals. 

“ASF will only infect a pig or boar here if they come into contact with discarded pork containing the virus — so why are we not seeing a high-profile public information campaign around waste management, which would help to prevent ASF ever reaching Scotland, rather than waiting to see if a wild boar will catch it?”