Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture has banned sheep and cattle imports from Romania after the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reported that cases of the bluetongue disease had recently been detected in the East European country.
The ministry’s assistant secretary general for livestock, Munther Rifai, told Petra on Sunday that the OIE had announced on its website the detection in Romania of bluetongue, a viral disease that is directly transmitted among animals by insects, but is non-contagious to humans.
He said Romania is the second biggest exporter of meat to Jordan after Australia, as the Kingdom imports between 300,000 and 400,000 heads of sheep and cattle from the European nation annually.
There is no public health risk associated with bluetongue disease, which is listed under the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code, the organisation said on its website.
“Jordan imports cattle and sheep mainly from Australia, followed by Romania and then Sudan,” Jordan Agriculture Ministry Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin told The Jordan Times
This is the first instance of the mosquito-transmitted disease manifesting in Romania. Evz.ro reports that so far there have been 80 confirmed cases of blue tongue disease in Buzau county. The virus has already spread to Braila, Vrancea and Prahova counties.
Romania exports up to one million cattle annually, mainly to the Netherlands, Italy and Croatia.