Caretaker Agriculture and Food Minister Georgi Tahov discussed the current epizootic situation in Bulgaria with representatives of livestock organizations at a meeting on Wednesday, the Ministry said in a press release. Attending the meeting, the representatives of livestock organizations expressed their willingness to cooperate to limit the spread of the diseases. They agreed that the envisaged compensations for the breeders are more than good, demanded that the rules be respected equally by all and that the compensation to the owners of the farm in Velingrad be paid as soon as possible.
Boyko Sinapov, head of the United Bulgarian Stock Breeders Association, warned that the sheep and goat plague (ovine rinderpest), despite causing a low mortality rate of some 2%, pose a serious risk to the livestock industry, especially when food safety must be ensured and access to foreign markets must be preserved. Appropriate compensations would help farmers rebuild their farms and get through this difficult period.
Dimitar Zorov, who heads the National Union of Cattle Breeders in Bulgaria, said that the low mortality rate does not rule out the implementation of measures to secure the outbreak because even an animal with antibodies is a carrier of the disease. "It is clear to everyone, following the two positive samples from the National Reference Laboratory [in Bulgaria] and the parallel sample from Greece, that the plague has reached those sheep one way or another", Zorov underscored.
Farmer Zdravko Uzunov added that if samples are sent again to the Reference Laboratory of the European Union for Peste des Petits Ruminants in Montpellier (France) and if the results there come out positive, export of Bulgarian sheep milk products risks being banned. According to him, this would lead to the bankruptcy of the entire sheep industry in Bulgaria, because there would be no one to buy the sheep's milk.
Farmer Georgi Milev stressed that despite the difficulties, there is full understanding in the industry of the need to comply with European requirements. "The ministry has done a lot for the sector in recent months, but now it is important to be sure that the EC will not impose sanctions against the whole country," he said.
An outbreak of ovine rinderpest was detected in a herd of some 1,760 animals in Velingrad. On Tuesday, Tahov met once again with the owners of the herd and reiterated the government's support but urged them to decide quickly whether they want to receive compensation or to have a third sample taken at the European reference laboratory in Montpellier. At the beginning of December, Bulgarian Food Safety Agency Executive Director Svetlozar Patarinski said it had been repeatedly confirmed that the animals in Velingrad were infected.
/MR/
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