African swine fever virus

Bulgaria will receive € 2.9 million in financial assistance from the European Union to fight African Swine Fever. This became clear after a meeting between Bulgaria's Minister of Agriculture Dessislava Taneva and EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis on August 6, reports BNT. 

The three industrial pig farms in Bulgaria's Rousse district where outbreaks of African Swine Fever were registered are awaiting 1.5 million BGN in compensation for the burial of culled animals and disinfection of the sites, reports BNT.

The amount was specified in a public procurement tender called by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. The contractors were selected by negotiations.

Some 20,000 - 25,000 people in Bulgaria have already lost their jobs because of African swine fever, financial expert Mika Zaykova said in an interview with Focus News Agency, commenting on the economic consequences of the disease.

"By New Year's Eve the price of the pork in Bulgaria will be with about 50% higher than it was at the beginning of 2019. Its average price will be BGN 7.50." 'This is what Cyril Vatev, an expert of the Association of Meat Processors in Bulgaria told bTV.

From today, employees of the Food Safety Agency will begin checks on the private farms of people in the 20-kilometer surveillance zone. The aim is to determine whether farmers have voluntarily killed their domestic pigs.

The deadline expired on Friday. In the Plovdiv region the villages around the Industrial Zone of Rakovski, Stryama and Belozem will be checked first.

Industrial pig farmers on August 2 called for declaring a state of emergency in the whole of Bulgaria due to the spread of African Swine Fever.

Supported by representatives of meat production, meat processing, and grain producers, they demanded even stricter measures to halt the spread of the virus, which is about to cause huge economic losses to the country.

The meeting of President Rumen Radev with the Chairman of the Epizootic Council at the Council of Ministers and Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, the Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva, her Deputy Janko Ivanov, the Minister of Environment and Water Neno Dimov, the Interior Minister Mladen Marinov, the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Iliev and experts on African swine fever in Bul

Greece bans pork imports from Bulgaria. Border checks are rigorous. Imports of pork and pork products are completely banned, BNR reports.

Preventive measures are being taken against the spread of African swine fever. The control of the authorities in the border regions with Bulgaria is strong.

From July 31 to Monday, August 5, a state of emergency was declared in the Northern Bulgarian region of Silistra because of a confirmed case of African Swine Fever in a pig-breeding farm in the village of Popina. The Regional Food Safety Directorate will organize a 12-hour inspection at slaughterhouses in Dulovo, Tutrakan, and Sitovo in the area.

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) has established a new outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) at an industrial farm in the village of Popina, Sitovo municipality, Silistra district. The positive samples were laboratory confirmed today, July 30, 2019, by the National Reference Laboratory at the National Diagnostic Veterinary Research Institute in Sofia.