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Wolves stop swine fever
Alarm in Lower Saxony
In Lower Saxony, the hunt for wild boars, which is hostile to animal welfare, is to curb their existence - the shooting of dams forbidden in the Federal Hunting Law as well as the illegal shooting of the animals from the car.
Wolves tear sick animals first. So they stop the spread of animal diseases such as swine fever under their prey. (Image: Nadine Haase / fotolia.com) Fear of lost sales
Lower Saxony is "pig country" with about 8 million domestic pigs. Of the meat, two-thirds are exported. If domestic pigs in Germany become ill with the disease, importers such as China, Japan or South Korea would presumably immediately impose an import ban.
Meaningless killings?
Animal rights activists criticize the mass killings of wild boars not only as unethical, but also as meaningless, even contrary to prevailing hunting laws. The hunters simply kill all the wild boar they hit - instead of the already infected.
Bearers: farmers and hunters
Wild boars do not transmit the virus directly to domestic pigs in Central Europe, as they have no contact with their wild ancestors in industrial animal husbandry. Contagion, on the other hand, occurs through humans: Farmers, who are also hunters, can drag the pathogen into the stables if they cling to their clothing, agricultural vehicles, tools and machinery.
Epidemic Wolf
Wolves hunt with the least effort. Therefore, they keep in boars to sick, young or old animals. When an outbreak occurs among the prey, the wolf automatically grabs the individuals weakened by the virus.
Prey boar
Boars are the prey of big cats like tigers and leopards. Even bears occasionally kill one of the animals. In Germany, there is only one animal predator who regularly hunts wild boar: the wolf.
Slovak wolves provide healthy pigs
Two studies from Slovakia, which was affected by (classical) swine fever, showed that the wolf pack areas were almost free of swine fever. 93 percent of all cases of swine flu were recorded outside the wolf areas, even with a high density near the wolf areas, and only seven percent within the wolf areas - and most of them near the wolf pack border.
Symptoms of swine fever
Affected animals suffer from general weakness and fatigue. They have a high fever, their conjunctiva inflames, and they hardly eat. You are lying a lot and have breathing problems. Cramping, twitching and a fluctuating gait are typical. In short, they lose their vigilance to predators, can no longer flee from wolves or defend themselves. For hungry wolves, this is a tenth in the lottery.
Can man replace the wolf??
The Slovak studies clearly showed that the epidemic spread even where high hunting pressure prevailed. Although it can neither prove nor disprove whether the distribution slowed down by human hunting, but it is clear: the hunter Wolf looks much better than "doctor of the wild" as the hunter man.
Protecting wolves instead of spreading hatred
At least 18 wolf packs live in Lower Saxony, and their territories overlap between Hannover and Bremen with centers of pig fattening. At the local wolves, wild boar stands after deer at the top of the menu. The best protection against the disease, the local pig farmers so in the woods on their doorstep: His name is Wolf.
Shoot instead of wolves
Meanwhile, Lower Saxony's new environment minister, Olaf Lies, ignores basic knowledge of wolf behavior and uses the propaganda of a Wolfshetzer lobby, which wants to enforce only one thing with hate fantasies, animal phobias and fictitious wolf attacks: shoot down wolves. However, if farmers want to protect their pigs from the plague and are at the same time hunters, they should first let the wolves do their job as a health police and secondly be careful not to drag possible pathogens into the stables. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Source: wilderness-society.org on 7.12.2018: "Wolfpacks manage disease outbreaks", retrieved on 7.12.2018