The Polish government will build one of the world’s longest fences along almost the entire length of Poland’s eastern border to protect the country from disease-carrying wild boar.

Stretching for some 768 miles and following Poland’s border with Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, the galvanised steel fence will aim to stop wild boar carrying African Swine Fever from entering Poland.

Costing an estimated £50 million, construction on the fence is due to start at the end of the year, and, if all goes to plan, it should stand in the way of boars from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian mountains by the end of 2020

Standing two metres high, the fence will also be buried into the ground to stop industrious boar tunnelling underneath it.

It comes amid calls for culls in France and Germany where fears have been raised that swelling boar populations are also carrying diseases and destroying farming pastures.