'Mystery illness' strikes Dutch wild boar

Image source, ERIK VAN 'T WOUD/AFP/Getty Images

Image caption, The boar are popular with visitors
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As many as 70 wild boar have died of an unexplained illness at a nature reserve in the eastern Netherlands.

Only about 20 boar die of disease in the Hoge Veluwe reserve annually, but , the Omroep Gelderland public broadcaster reports.

Erik Koffeman of the Gelderland Wildlife Management Department says the death rate is "unprecedented - experts have never seen anything like this before".

Wild boar are allowed to live in only a few parts of the country, in case they cause damage or disrupt traffic, and the , according to the local De Stentor newspaper.

'Plentiful food'

"About 150 boar die every year, often in traffic collisions, but ," Mr Koffeman told the Hart van Nederland news programme.

Wildlife wardens have ruled out African swine fever, as the boar are routinely tested for it, and hunger is not an issue because this has been a "very plentiful food year for them," he added.

The Dutch Wildlife Health Centre has performed autopsies on six carcasses, and excluded the possibility of 30 other boar diseases and found no common denominator.

One died of pneumonia but, as for the others, "," said veterinarian pathologist Dr Marja Kik of Utrecht University.

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One theory is that the boars are being "stressed out" by the wolves that have made their way into the Hoge Veluwe in recent years, but Erik Koffeman doubts this.

"The location of the carcasses don't always match the wolves' habitat," he says, adding that the oak processionary caterpillar - another invasive creature that has made the headlines in the Netherlands this year - wasn't around in January when the first dead boards were found.

'On the alert'

Erik Koffeman says the wardens are "now particularly alert" to signs of sick boar, and the disease does seem to be on the wane.

It is unlikely to affect the overall boar population of Veluwe, as thousands are culled each year just to keep numbers down, but Mr Koffeman told Hart van Nederland that the wardens are "still left with questions" as to what's been happening.

Image source, Hart van Nederland/YouTube

Image caption, Erik Koffeman says questions remain

Reporting by Martin Morgan

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