No farm in Romania is currently affected by African swine fever, but there are 24 outbreaks in household backyards and among wild boars, the president of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), Alexandru Bociu, said on Wednesday after a meeting at the relevant Ministry.
"African swine fever is a disease that appeared in Romania nine years ago. Today, there are 24 outbreaks of African swine fever in Romania, in wild boars and household holdings. No farm is affected," Bociu said, agerpres reports.
He added that in 2021, when he took over at the helm of ANSVSA, there were around 1,600 African swine fever outbreaks.
"In November 2021, when I took office as ANSVSA president, there were 1,600 active outbreaks of African swine fever in Romania, and more than 80 farms were affected. The trend has been very good from 2022 until now," the ANSVSA official explained.
In November last year, Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu asked the Veterinary Authority to check all batches of pork imported from the European Union for African swine fever, warning that there was a risk of bringing the disease into Romania from abroad.
"I have looked very closely into this issue and carried out numerous analyses at the Ministry of Agriculture and in the field. Think about it, why does African swine fever appear in backyard households? There may be a very high risk of importing contaminated pork," Minister Florin Barbu told AGERPRES at the time.
He explained that Romania checks only 2 - 3% of imported meat due to limited inspection capacity, which increases the risk of introducing the disease through imported products.
According to ANSVSA data sent to AGERPRES, between January 1 and November 27, 453 African swine fever outbreaks were confirmed in Romania, of which 431 in household backyards and 22 in commercial farms. Currently, 47 outbreaks remain active: 44 in household holdings and 3 in commercial farms.
A working meeting between Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Florin Barbu and pig farmers took place on Wednesday at the ministry, in the presence of representatives of ANSVSA and the Competition Council.
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