October 11 (SeeNews) - Romanian agriculture minister Petre Daea said that the European Commission has agreed to grant 43 million euro ($49.4 million) to the country to tackle the outbreak of African swine fever (PPA) that has affected thousands of farms in the last months.
"An action plan has been set up to cope with the particular situation Romania is facing. We have arranged together with the European Commission the disbursement of 43 million euro which will be used for investments in disinfectants, sanitary-veterinary laboratories, equipment for detection of the fever, crematoriums, and for buying gilt pigs," Petre Daea said in a televised news conference broadcast by local Digi 24 station on Wednesday evening.
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Romania requested financial support from the EU in August, he added.
According to a recent report issued by the National Sanitary-Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), 998 outbreaks of PPA in 246 localities in 13 counties and 90 cases of PPA in wild boars were registered. In total, 348,691 pigs affected by the disease were culled. Most of the outbreaks - 564 - were in the eastern county of Tulcea.
Daea said there are signs of recovery in the affected zones and that over 6,000 households have already received compensation for their slaughtered animals.
In August, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said that local farmers were headed for bankruptcy because the government handed poorly the recent outbreak of PPA.
The president emphasised that there are major implications for the national economy because the PPA virus is jeopardising all commercial pig farms in Romania, which produce about half of the pork for domestic consumption.
($=0.8705 euro)