Emergency vaccination of small ruminants
On Sunday Romania kicked off a vaccination campaign against Peste de Petit Ruminants (PPR) and sheep and goat pox (SPG)
Ştefan Stoica, 26.10.2026, 14:00
A nationwide vaccination campaign of sheep and goats kicked off on Sunday in the counties of Constanţa and Tulcea, in southeastern Romania, a day ahead of the schedule. The onset of the aforementioned campaign became possible after the receipt starting Thursday of all the 1.1 million doses of vaccines against Peste de Petit Ruminants (PPR) and sheep and goat pox (SPG) granted by the European Union.
The National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) has published the guidelines and recommendations for farmers and a list with the animals’ normal reactions after immunization.
The Commission quickly activated the EU banks of vaccines against the two diseases on October 8, after all the practical and legal requests had been met. The European vaccine reserves are aimed at ensuring the necessary quantities for commencing an emergency vaccination campaign but they are not enough to support the entire campaign.
The ANSVSA chief, Alexandru Bociu, has underlined the immunization process is completely free of charge and made an appeal to animal breeders to take the campaign seriously. According to the institution, the temporary restrictions regarding the sheep and goat circulation on the entire Romanian territory are still in place in order to prevent the spreading of the diseases.
The interdiction imposed by the European Commission regarding the export of sheep and goats from Romania to third countries is maintained until December 31, besides the already existing ones for deliveries inside the bloc.
Sanitary-veterinary directions all over the country are expected to summon on Tuesday all the field associations in order to assess how blocked exports are impacting animal breeders in Romania.
According to the ANSVSA chief, at the moment there are no centralized estimates over the losses incurred by the producers. He has offered a series of details about vaccine distribution: about 800 thousand have been delivered to Constanţa and Tulcea, whereas 300 thousand to 22 other counties where outbreaks have been reported. Upon the completion of the aforementioned vaccination campaign, exports are to be resumed towards the third countries, which have accepted the strategy Alexandru Bociu has underlined
Alexandru Bociu: “We chose to begin with critical areas. Tulcea and Constanţa are two strategic areas for Romania, as they are Romania’s export gates towards their destinations. In the meantime we have succeeded in renegotiating export certificates with countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and Israel – as these are countries, which have agreed to our vaccination strategy and have also validated export certificates with vaccine application.”
Agriculture Minister, Florin Barbu, is to present to the European Commission the measures Romania has taken and will request the resumption of exports earlier.
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