The spread of African swine fever in Bulgaria, which threatens the Balkan country’s pig-breeding industry is worrying, an EU Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said on Thursday.
One of the EU’s poorest states, Bulgaria has reported more than 30 outbreaks of the disease — which is incurable in pigs but harmless to humans — at industrial or backyard farms. About 130,000 pigs have already been culled. Bulgaria’s deputy agriculture minister said on Wednesday that the country has failed to contain the spread of African swine fever, while experts say Bulgaria could lose its entire 600,000 pig breeding industry.
The situation “is very worrying”, Itkonen told a media briefing, urging action against what she called a “catastrophic animal disease”.An outbreak of African swine fever in China is forecast by experts to wipe out about a third of Chinese pork production this year, or 18-million tonnes, twice the amount of pork exported worldwide every year.
Bulgaria will receive €2.9m in EU financial aid to combat the disease, Taneva said after meeting Andriukaitis.