August 7 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria will receive 2.9 million euro ($3.2 million) from the European Commission to finance the prevention of African swine fever spreading in the country, the agriculture ministry said.
The funding is provided under the EU's plan for prevention of African swine fever 2018-2019, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday following a meeting of agriculture minister Desislava Taneva with the European commissioner on health and food safety Vytenis Andriukaitis in Brussels.
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From September 21 until the beginning of October, the Commission will carry out an audit of the measures which Bulgaria has taken to fight the deadly disease among domestic pigs and wild boars for which there is no known cure or vaccine. The co-financing depends on the outcome of the audit, which will determine whether the measures are in line with the EU legislation.
As of July 31 Bulgaria has requested a total of 11 million euro in EU funding to compensate for the culling of pigs in industrial farms in the country. The Commission will come up with a decision regarding the country's requests within a period of 30 days, Andriukaitis was quoted as telling Taneva during their meeting.
Outbreaks of African swine fever have been confirmed in six industrial pig farms in Bulgaria year to date. The total number of outbreaks registered in the country is 30, while the reported cases of African swine fever in wild boars is 27, according to data published by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency last week.
In February, the food safety agency said that it has confirmed a case of African swine fever in a wild boar near the town of Devnya, in the country's norteastern part - the first confirmed case of the disease in 2019. In July it reported an outbreak of African swine fever in domestic pigs.
( 1 euro = 1.95583 levs)