the united states is not the only country with an ongoing gränsmurskontrovers. Denmark has decided to build a fence that is one and a half metres high along the entire border with Germany has been criticized from several directions.
the Fence will cost 42 million, but this is peanuts in comparison with the more than 40 billion kronor which the Danish svinexporten was the host last year, writes the news agency Ritzau.
african swine fever which got the parliament to take the decision about the fence last summer. The initiative came from a landsbruksorganisation. In Denmark there are 3,000 farms that raise pigs. An outbreak of swine fever could lead to all grisnäringen knocked out. It would affect the whole Danish economy.
African swine fever is a virus that affects both wild and domestic swine. The disease is harmless to humans and other animals, but extremely deadly for pigs.
In eastern Europe there is the disease for several years in the Baltic states and countries such as Poland and Romania. In the fall, became the disease for the first time, the actual Belgium in western Europe.
the Disease can be spread in several ways. A possible scenario is that the wild boar, which eat the leftovers as a car driver from an area where the infection is throw out in the nature.
Photo: Lasse Svensson/TT
between two EU countries is in many ways controversial. Today is the border between Denmark and Germany barely visible. The fence will influence the movement of both people and wildlife. There are fears that the tourism industry is damaged. On both sides of the border, people are worried that the cohesion is getting worse.
the Fence will have small apertures of 20×20 centimeters for smaller animals should be able to get through, they should be placed with 50-100 metre intervals. It shall also have the 20 larger openings where the wolf, the deer and the deer can pass. According to Bo Øksnebjerg, secretary-general of the Danish WWF, the fence not receive the intended effect.
– Likely the wild boars that run through the openings in the fence. Therefore, we do not believe that it is meaningful to damage wildlife, then the fence will not help to solve the basic problem, which is the african swine fever, he said to the DR in connection with the referral process.
a four days long svinpestövning where Danish authorities are preparing their actions in case of a possible outbreak of african swine fever.
