site.btaSocialists Propose Set of Measures to Address African Swine Fever Outbreaks

104 ECONOMY - SOCIALISTS - AFRICAN SWINE FEVER MEASURES - Amp.

Socialists Propose
Set of Measures to Address
African Swine Fever Outbreaks


Sofia, August 3 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)
proposed a set of five measures to address the consequences of
the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks across the country, BSP
quoted its leader Kornelia Ninova in a press release on
Saturday.

One measure is to set aside a certain sum from the budget
surplus, which according to the Finance Minister is around 3
billion, and have the State purchase the pigs from their owners
at market prices.

Ninova also proposes to re-establish veterinary services and
veterinarians' regions,
which in her words, GERB have scrapped.

Another proposal is to organize wild boar hunts, which were
suspended by the incumbents a year ago, and build incinerators,
so that an environmental catastrophe is prevented.

The Socialists also believe that the prosecuting magistracy
should be alerted and start investigating office holders, who
have contributed to this catastrophe with their actions or lack
thereof.

Ninova also accuses Prime Minister Borissov in not taking
people's concerns seriously and trying to pit the large
pig-breeding farms against small pig owners. According to her,
the large pig-breeding facilities will be compensated with
European and national funding, while there will be nothing for
the 20,000 workers in them.

"He is beating around the bush, saying that for two years they
have stopped the disease, but can't hold it off anymore. In
reality, they've slept through two years," Ninova is quoted by
her party as saying.

Late on Friday, Borissov met in the southern town of Pazardzhik
with mayors of settlements who protested against some of the
measures to control the ASF outbreak in the country. He said
after the meeting, which was also attended by Agriculture
Minister Dessislava Taneva, that people who raise pigs in their
backyards will receive 300 leva for each pig they voluntarily
slaughter themselves.

"By law, these farms are illegal, but we are nevertheless
treating the situation with care and tolerance," Borissov said,
adding that this (AFS) strain has been around for 30 years and
there are no vaccines against it and two hundred million AFS
infected pigs have been killed in China. "We managed to contain
it for two years, but it has now taken us over," the Prime
Minister noted.

* * *

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) reported that ASF was registered in another large pig-breeding farm, located in the northeastern village of Vetren. A total of four new cases of the disease have been registered in the regions of Rousse, Vidin and Sofia, BFSA said.

The outbreak in Vetren affects 8,253 pigs. The test samples were confirmed as positive on Saturday by the Reference Laboratory at the National Diagnostic Research Veterinary Institute. BFSA recalls that the facility in Vetren falls within the supervision zone around the outbreak registered earlier in the village of Popina.
LI/MY
/МЙ/