#Romania2019.eu/ANSVSA: Biosecurity, main topic of CVO meeting in March

The new meeting of the Chief Veterinary Officers (CVO) organized during Romania's Presidency at the European Union Council will take place in March and the main focus will be bio-security as a unitary strategy for the surveillance and protection of animal health in the EU. 

"A new meeting of the Chief Veterinary Officers will take place in March and the topic we have chosen is bio-security in the context of the African swine fever that claims the bio-security point-related problems, whether we are talking about bio-security at the level of the populations' courtyards, households or at the level of professional holdings of different sizes. Romania's situation is unique, as more than 75 percent of the pigs raised in households of all the member states are in our country. If we take a look on a map, anywhere we see human settlements we also can find pigs. Under these conditions, it is extremely difficult to manage a disease that spreads so powerfully. In this context, bio-security, the only one that can provide us general protection, comes out again in the foreground," President of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) Geronimo Branescu told AGERPRES. 

He argues that currently in Romania, it's very difficult to apply bio-security measures in people's courtyards, but he believes that "in an immediate future, those who want to breed pigs will adapt." 

The conclusions of the last mission carried out by European experts in Romania on this subject showed that low bio-security measures in the pig breeding system in the households and insufficient control of animal movement, namely the trade and transport of pigs without respecting sanitary veterinary legislation, are among the most important risk factors. 

In Romania, the African swine fever currently is reported in 299 localities from 21 counties, with 1,131 outbreaks (18 of which in commercial farms), and in other two counties cases have been reported only for wild boars. In total, 365,197 pigs affected by the disease were eliminated. Over 1,007 cases were identified in wild boars. 

Also, the ANSVSA President underscored the importance of the provisional agreement obtained under Romania's Presidency regarding the proposal for a Regulation on the General Food Law, one of the most difficult files in this area. 

In his view, "the burden on this file has passed," and at present, the proposal for a regulation has reached translation stages in the EU official languages. "After the translation, the proposal will be presented to the plenary of the European Parliament for adoption, the estimated date being the end of March, after which it will go for publication and come into force with the deadlines agreed in the regulation. This was a very difficult file because we are talking about a law that will basically govern, from now on, food at the level of the European Union market," the ANSVSA official added. 

Last but not least, Branescu said that the regulation of the issue of double standards of food quality does not come within the European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), but in consumer protection, which watches unfair commercial practices. 

He also said that Romania has succeeded in introducing the issue of food safety into the upcoming meetings of the CVO. 

According to the quoted source, during 12 and 14 June, the CVO Informal Working Group will be held in Romania, when all 27 EU Veterinary Officers will come to Romania. 

"It will be the first time in Romania's history when chiefs of the EU veterinary services will gather in Romania and we will discuss in Bucharest and Constanta the problems on the agenda," ANSVSA President Geronimo Branescu concluded.