Romania's plan for combating African Swine Fever
The Ministry of Agriculture, together with representatives of ANSVSA, has drawn a plan to fight the African swine fever, by means of which the state representatives intend to involve all the authorities, from the prefect to the mayor, in the eradication of the disease, starting from local level to county level, to national.
The African swine fever (ASF) is currently present in 242 localities over 26 counties, counting 670 outbreaks. The number of active outbreaks is declining, but the presence of the virus is felt in more than half of the country. In other 10 counties, only boars were diagnosed with ASF.
Since the first report of the presence of the ASF virus in Romania, on July 31, 2017, up to now, over 542.000 pigs affected by the disease have been eliminated, and over 2.400 cases have been diagnosed in boars, according to ANSVSA. Most outbreaks were found in Tulcea, counting 586 cases.
Among the measures to be initiated against the ASF virus: killing all the pigs from the farms where the disease was detected, in order to avoid the risk of its spreading; taking a sufficient number of samples so that it can be determined how the African swine fever virus was introduced into the farm; the carcasses of dead or killed pigs must be destroyed under the supervision of the veterinarian; any substance or waste likely to be contaminated, such as feed, litter, disposable materials, and in particular those used for killing operations, will be destroyed; after the killing of the pigs, the shelters and vehicles that were used for their transport or the transport of their carcasses, as well as the equipment, must be disinfected, according to the data published on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Robert Chioveanu, president of ANSVSA, recently explained that a new strategy for fighting the ASF was developed, together with Adrian Oros, Minister of Agriculture. However, he is of opinion that it is not just ANSVSA`s fight, but the ministries of the Environment and Interior, as well as the farmers and players from the meat industry must also be involved.
” By the end of 2020 we want to clear the big farms, and in five years we will have free zones”, said the head of ANSVSA.
The county prefect, in his capacity of president and director of the Sanitary-Veterinary Directorate (DSV), must establish the control and fighting strategy of the disease in the county he represents, must coordinate the collaboration activities between the authorities and the public institutions responsible for the management of emergency situations in the county, and must analyze the veterinary health situation in its territory, take measures for its improvement, and make decisions according to the information received from the field.
In addition, the director of must cooperate with the institutions in the neighboring counties in order to fight the disease and provide the specialized medical-veterinary technical support necessary for the intervention in the disease outbreaks, as well as at the border points.
The mayor of the commune affected by the disease will manage the situation locally, following and guiding the other members of the local council - from deputy mayor, secretary, representative of the directorate for agriculture, representative of the public health authority, representative of the Ministry of Administration and Interior, concessionary veterinarian to the official veterinarian - in order to take the necessary measures to correctly eradicate the virus.
He must cooperate efficiently with the other structures of the local Center for the Control of Animal Diseases, in order to apply the general plan of measures for the prevention and control of epizootics at local level.
The rapid spreading of the virus at country level has led to the ban on the export of pork to other markets by the Romanian producers, and to the doubling of the price of pork meat in retail, the price reaching 4 euros/kg. In 2020, the big producers expect the price to go up to 6 euros/kg.
From December 11, the Romanian Police has begun to carry out traffic checks to verify if pigs are transported in the trunk of cars. "Those caught with a pig in the trunk, and lacking of documents for the animals and their transportation, will be fined, and the pigs will be confiscated and incinerated," stated Chioveanu.
