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Bulgaria Completes Border Fence To Stop Entry Of Animals With African Swine Fever
Bulgaria has completed the construction of a wire fence on the border with Romania to prevent the arrival of migratory animals infected with African swine fever, an official said on Tuesday quoted by novinite.com.
“The fence is completed along the 133-km stretch of the border, and is currently being equipped with Bruno’s spiral and repellents to reinforce the deterrent effect on migratory animals,’’ said Yanko Ivanov, deputy minister of agriculture, food and forestry, after an inspection of part of the fence.
The fence was built over four weeks.
Bulgaria has not registered any case of African swine fever, Ivanov’s press office said.
Ivanov said Romania’s African swine fever situation was “very worrying’’, adding that the disease had hit the biggest pig farm in Romania only 50 km from the Bulgarian border.
On July 23 that the Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Roumen Porozhanov said that several steps were being taken to prevent the spread of African swine fever in the country, but added that this would not be easy.
Soon after that the clearing of land to enable the building of a fence at the Romanian border has begun, to prevent the movement of wild boar into Bulgaria as a measure against African swine fever.
The length of Romania’s border with Bulgaria is 631.3 km, of which 139.1 km is land border, 470.0 km river border and 22.2 km maritime border.
President Klaus Iohannis has asked the Government on Wednesday to take immediate actions to stop the spread of the African swine fever outbreak and to urgently compensate the affected pig farmers. The President’s request comes one day after the Agriculture minister has minimised the problems caused by the swine fever.
The administration argues that due to the poor management of this crisis, the PSD Government have pushed the local pig farmers on the verge of bankruptcy.
At present, there are over 700 hot zones in 10 counties in Romania, including in Ilfov County, near Bucharest, with an alarming spread pace in store.
About 140,000 pigs will be slaughtered, this week, at a farm in Braila County, the largest pig breeding and raising farm in Romania, the second largest in Europe. As a matter of fact all large pig farms in south-eastern areas are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Up to date, more than 150,000 pigs have already been slaughtered in 156 localities, in 10 counties throughout the country. The number will double after the slaughtering of pigs from Gropeni farm (141,000 pigs) and Tichilesti (35,000).