Romania has requested funds from the European
\nUnion for the farmers affected by an outbreak of African swine fever in pigs.
\nThe request was made on Tuesday by the agriculture minister Petre Daea at a
\nmeeting in Brussels with his EU counterparts. According to Daea, 12 of the
\nministers present showed solidarity with the situation in Romania. The funds
\nwould help cover the losses suffered by farmers following the culling of the
\nsick pigs, the suspension of meat production and a drop in the price of pork in
\nthe areas affected. The aid will also cover costs related to cleaning and
\ndisinfection and the destruction of fodder. <\/p>\n
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The agriculture ministry says Romania continues
\nto take measures to contain the virus. At the moment, most outbreaks have been
\nreported near the border with Ukraine. The counties with the biggest number of
\ncases are the north-western county of Satu Mare and the south-eastern county of
\nTulcea. More than 300 cases have been reported so far. The culling continues
\nand the teams sent in by the National Sanitary and Veterinary Authority are
\ntaking measures to prevent the virus from spreading.<\/p>\n
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The representatives of pig farmers say the
\nsituation is very serious because it affects the commerce with pork around the
\ncountry. Ioan Ladosi, the president of the association of pork producers told
\nthe public station there is a risk of a crisis on this market:<\/p>\n
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Unless this situation is solved as soon as
\npossible, we believe it will lead to a crisis and this crisis can be major. It
\nwould mean banning commerce with live animals and carcasses all over the
\ncountry. The virus can live for up to three years in frozen meat, so we have a
\nproblem, not necessarily in terms of human health, because people will not catch
\nthe disease, but in terms of the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n
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Tulcea is the county most strongly affected by
\nthe spread of African swine fever. Local officials have explained that the virus
\noriginated in the Danube area, near the border with Ukraine, later spreading to
\nthe centre of the county. The economic losses are significant. For example, a
\npig farm with 50,000 pigs had to slaughter almost half of them. The culling,
\nwhich is obligatory in this case, places the future of the farm in doubt. The
\nfarm has also had to let go of almost half of its employees.<\/p>\n
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Wild boars are to blame for the spread of the
\nvirus, but hunters say hunting is not recommended at this point, because
\nfleeing boars can spread the disease to areas that have not been affected. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bucharest requests EU funds to support farms affected by outbreak of African swine fever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":78340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[32374],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-78339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-african-swine-fever"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n