ASF: Three industrial pig farms in Bulgaria await 1.5M leva compensation
Three industrial pig farms in the Rousse district in Bulgaria where outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) were confirmed are awaiting 1.5 million leva (about 750 000 euro) compensation for burial of culled animals and disinfection of the sites, Bulgarian National Television said on August 5.
The sum was specified in a public tender called by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, the report said. The contractors were selected by negotiation.
Each of the affected industrial pig farms will receive between 300 000 and 600 000 leva for culling and burying the animals. A further 720 000 leva will go to a Razgrad company that will deal with disinfection and decontamination of sites in the district.
The report said that of the three industrial pig farms in Rousse where ASF was confirmed, culling of pigs at the Nikolovo plant was completed while the process was continuing at the other two.
The head of the Rousse Regional Directorate of Food Safety, Dr Georgi Dyakov, said that the process in Brushlen was expected to be completed by August 6. The process began in Golyamo Vranovo on August 3.
According to the Bulgarian National Television report, measures at the Danube Bridge in Rousse against ASF had been stepped up.
Pork sausages and meat are being confiscated from travellers crossing the border and are stored in a special freezer.
Dyakov said that in the past month, about 60kg of food of animal origin had been confiscated, most often from Bulgarians arriving from abroad. ASF had not been detected in any of the products.
The Regional Directorate of Food Safety was maintaining enhanced control at the smaller industrial pig farms in the Rousse district, in the villages of Pisanets, Shtraklevo and Karamanovo, where a total of 10 000 pigs are held.
BNT said that for months, all people and vehicles entering Bulgaria the Danube Bridge crossing point in Rousse had been subject to disinfection.
Apart from the customary border checks, there are also Bulgarian Food Safety Agency staff who check the boots of cars for food.
As of August 5, Food Safety Agency staff were beginning inspections of private holdings within 20km surveillance zones in Bulgaria to establish whether farmers have voluntarily killed their domestic pigs. The deadline to do so expired on August 2.
If the owners have not complied with the agency’s orders, the veterinary authorities will initiate the forced culling of the animals.
The culling of 8000 pigs from the pig farm in the Silistra village of Vetren was expected to begin on August 5.
In Svishtov, the epizootic commission declared an emergecny because of the difficulty of killing pigs at the pig farm in the village of Bulgarko Slivovo, where 17 000 pigs are held. At the same time, farmers in the village of Belozem in the Plovdiv district have already killed their domestic pigs, Bulgarian National Radio said.
Protests in Bulgaria against measures taken by the authorities to tackle African Swine Fever are continuing, BNR saud.
On August 5, the blockade on the Sliven-Yambol road entered its fourth day.
(Photo: Oscar Nilson/freeimages.com)
