One dead specimen turned up in Arona county of central Vidzeme province’s Madona district and one also in Plāņi county of Strenči district, which had not seen any ASF cases so far, though located in the affected emergency zones declared by the PVD last year.
Twelve boar were found in Rencēni county of Burtnieki district, while one each turned up dead in Umurga county (Limbaži district), and Ķoņi county (Naukšēni).
The current count thus rose to 178 wild boars found within 29 counties of 12 administrative territorial districts just this year.
Since the outbreak of ASF in southeastern Latgale province last June, altogether 395 wild boar have been confirmed to have died of the disease, which is devastating to both domestic pigs and wild boar and can be spread by human contact from contaminated sites.
Last year strict bio-sanitary measures were imposed upon domestic pig farmers and enforced by the PVD with support from local police authorities. The state-of-emergency zones gradually extended from border regions of Latgale into northeast and central Vidzeme almost all the way to the Riga suburbs, which checked the spread of ASF among domestic pig farms, where the last confirmed case was reported last September.
