Romania asks EU for help to fight African swine fever

Romania’s prime minister Viorica Dancila asked on Thursday the EU commissioner for agriculture, Phil Hogan, for technical and financial assistance in fighting the African swine fever that ravages Romanian farms.

“I asked the Commissioner to give all the technical and financial support from the European Commission to reduce the negative impact that African swine fever had on Romanian agriculture,” Dancila said, in a common press conference with Phil Hogan.

In Romania, farms in 11 counties – a quarter of country’s territory – are affected by African swine fever, according to the latest official data.

Matthew Stone, Deputy head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), recently said that tracking meat and meat products from pigs infected with African swine fever is key to fight the spread of the highly viral disease as it can survive in processed food.

In Romania, authorities reported that food transported by people was very likely to be the source of contamination in the country.

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African swine fever has led to the culling of around 250,000 animals in Romania.