Europe has radioactive wild boars, new study reveals there's more to it than Chernobyl

While the Chernobyl disaster has left its mark on Europe, are its effects still being felt more than 35 years later?

In recent news, researchers have detected high levels of cesium-137, a chemical radioactive element, in wild boar. A study published in August 2023 looked into what caused the contamination and brought about this new species of radioactive animal, what they found what quite surprising.

Their results showed that the origin of this mutant pig is not only because of the reactor explosion on April 26 1986.

Radioactive wild boar in Germany

These radioactive wild boars have been detected in Germany, in Bavaria to be precise. In the study published in Environmental Science & Technology, the researcherspoint out, however, that this phenomenon is not localized, and that other wild boars also have traces of caesium-137 in the continent:

A striking example is the contamination of wild boar in Central Europe, which is known for its persistently high levels of caesium-137. However, in the absence of reliable source identification, the origin of this decades-old problem is uncertain.

Cesium-137 levels in these boars are so high that this could lead to public health problems, as boar flesh could contaminate the food chain.

Read more: 89 of UK's biggest threats revealed by Government and they include nuclear attack and volcanic eruption

Where does this cesium-137 come from?

Given Bavaria's relative proximity to Chernobyl, one might think that this contamination was the result of the release of radioactive particles from the Chernobyl disaster, as wild boar feed on mushrooms found in the soil. This is partly true, as the researchers point out:

Bavaria, in south-eastern Germany, is known for its high contamination by caesium-137 following the Chernobyl nuclear accident

However, cesium-137 is also believed to have come from various atomic weapons tests that took place in the 1960s:

All the samples show signatures of a mixture of Chernobyl fallout and nuclear weapons.

This article has been translated fromGentside FR.

Read more:

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⋙ Nuclear explosion: This video reveals the effect on our bodies second by second

Sources used:

BBC: Nuclear weapons testing cause of radioactivity in wild boars, study says

Environmental Science & Technology