site.btaNo Animals from Velingrad's Sheep Farm Will Be Culled, Farm Remains under Quarantine

No animals from the sheep farm in Velingrad, where an outbreak of goat plague has been detected, will be culled, according to a joint statement from the Agriculture and Food Ministry and the Interior Ministry. The farm remains under quarantine and temporary measures have been put in place to restrict the movement of small ruminants to and from Pazardzhik Region.

Since Saturday, people from all over Bulgaria have been protesting outside the sheep farm, expressing their support for the farm’s owner. Some of the protesters said they were willing to stay as long as necessary to save the animals. 

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Georgi Iliev, father of one of the farm’s owners, said the farm was his entire livelihood. "I have sacrificed my health. I love my animals. If they are destroyed, we die too," he said and appealed to the caretaker Agriculture and Food Minister for help. Iliev said the sheep were not sick with plague.  

There has been no tension between law enforcement and the protesting livestock farmers in Velingrad. Police have been on site for six days to maintain public order, a spokesperson for the Regional Directorate of the Interior Ministry in Pazardzhik told BTA earlier on Thursday.