July 25 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Food Safety Agency (BFSA) said that it has confirmed an outbreak of deadly African swine fever at a second industrial pig breeding farm in the country, in the village of Brashlen in the northeastern Ruse region.
The presence of the highly contagoius disease at the farm, where there are some 40,000 pigs, was confirmed by laboratory tests late on July 23, BFSA said in a statement on Wednesday.
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This is the second confirmed outbreak of African swine fever at an industrial pig farm in Ruse region. The first one was confirmed on July 19 in the village of Nikolovo, with some 17,000 pigs in it.
The culling of pigs at the Nikolovo pig farm is still ongoing, BFSA said
The agency has also confirmed two outbreaks of African swine fever in domestic pigs in Vratsa region, in nortwestern Bulgaria, and the first outbreak in Svishtov municipality, west of Ruse. The first case of African swine fever in a wild boar was confirmed in Lom minicipality, in nortwestern Bulgaria.
The food safety agency has set up a three-kilometre prevention zone and a ten-kilometre surveillance zone around each of the affected areas. All pigs in those areas will be culled. The disease does not affect humans.
According to BFSA, 19 outbreaks of African swine fever have been registered thus far in six Bulgarian regions - Pleven, Burgas, Vratsa, Ruse, Targovishte and Veliko Tarnovo.