Outbreak of African Swine Fever at industrial farm with 17 000 pigs in Bulgaria’s Rousse

Bulgaria’s Food Safety Agency has confirmed an outbreak of African Swine Fever at an industrial farm in the village of Nikolovo in Bulgaria’s Rousse municipality, nine km from the border with Romania.

This is the first outbreak at an industrial farm, after cases of African Swine Fever confirmed in various parts of Bulgaria in recent weeks at backyard holdings.

The agency said that the outbreak at the industrial farm, which holds 17 000 pigs, was confirmed by official laboratory tests.

The regional directorate of the Food Safety Agency in Rousse has issued an order banning the movement of pigs to and from the site. Checks have also been carried out on slaughterhouses to which pigs have been dispatched.

Meat and products derived from pigs from the farm are to be destroyed, the agency said.

The immediate culling of domestic pigs in a three km safety zone had been ordered.

In the 10km monitoring zone, trading in and transporting live pigs was forbidden.

Authorised transportation and trade in domestic pigs would be penalised and the animals found to have been transported would be promptly and humanely killed, the agency said.

On July 21, inspections at markets in Sofia by the Food Safety Agency and the Sofia municipal inspectorate were continuing.

Checks were carried out at the market in Dolni Bogrov. A report by Bulgarian National Television said that for several years, live pigs had not been sold at the market.

The market was not registered. While there were no live pigs, other breaches of regulations were found, such as non-compliance with regulations on the sale of eggs.

Inspectors repeated a warning to the public to be careful about food products in such places. The most commonly offered meat had not been tested for trachelin, a parasite that can cause serious illness.

(Photo: Oscar Nilson/freeimages.com)

Comments

comments

The Sofia Globe staff

The Sofia Globe - the Sofia-based fully independent English-language news and features website, covering Bulgaria, the Balkans and the EU. Sign up to subscribe to sofiaglobe.com's daily bulletin through the form on our homepage. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=32709292