No new cases of African swine fever (ASF) had been detected in Saxony for over a year – now the virus has been found in a dead wild boar in the Königshain Hills.
In Saxony, another case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in a dead wild boar in the Königshain Hills in the Görlitz district. Initial measures were immediately initiated on site.
After Saxony lifted the last restricted zones for combating African swine fever (ASF) in wild boar populations at the beginning of February, the disease has broken out again. As the Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs, Health and Social Cohesion (SMS) announced, the ASF virus was detected on March 31, 2026, in a wild boar found dead in the Königshain Hills, west of the city of Görlitz in the Görlitz district. The animal was a male, estimated to be no more than two years old. The national reference laboratory for animal diseases at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) has already confirmed the findings of the Saxon State Investigation Office.
Social Affairs Minister Petra Köpping, responsible for animal disease control, stated that the renewed outbreak was a hard blow for Saxony, but that the state was not unprepared. “We are not starting from scratch,” she said. ” Over the past five and a half years, we have gained considerable experience in dealing with this animal disease. Together with the regional veterinary authorities, hunters, and farmers, we are a well-coordinated team. We are relying once again on this close cooperation to prevent the disease from spreading from the new location where it was found.”
