site.btaWire Fence Built along Land Border with Romania to Prevent against African Swine Fever

Silistra, on the Danube, July 24 (BTA) - Work has started on erecting a wire fence along the land border with neighbouring Romania as a preventive measure against the spread of African swine fever, Agriculture Minister Roumen Porozhanov said. Porozhanov is in Silistra for the establishment of a regional task force to prevent against an outbreak of the disease in Bulgaria.

Porozhanov urged for limiting collective hunting of wild boars. Instead, the wild boar populations should be cut down by selective hunting, he said. The Minister said that the relevant Bulgarian and Romanian authorities are in constant contact.

Porozhanov said that pigs raised in people's backyards should be butchered, because such facilities lack the proper level of biological security. The local authorities in Silistra said that nearly ten per cent of such people have done so. Porozhanov said that a ten-kilometre security zone should be provided around big pig-breeding farms.