The killing of animals has begun in the sheep farm in Haskovo affected by small ruminant smallpox, BTA reported.
I hope today by the end of the day the measures will be completed and the disinfection of the site will begin. This was announced by the director of the Regional Directorate for Food Safety (ODBH) in Haskovo, Dr. Georgi Iliev, at an extraordinary meeting of the Regional Epizootic Commission in the regional administration.
As BTA reported yesterday, the outbreak of smallpox was established in a livestock facility with 180 sheep. The signal was received on Monday afternoon by a private veterinarian, Iliev pointed out. He recalled that a 3-kilometer safety zone and a 10-kilometer monitored zone around the farm have already been determined by order. This is the fifth outbreak of the disease in the region since October 16, Iliev reported. The last one was on November 12 at a farm in the village of Uzundzhovo, also with 180 sheep.
The bans on free grazing, transportation and sale of small ruminants imposed on the region are not respected, which is a prerequisite for the transmission of the highly contagious disease, warned the director of the ODBH. It was agreed with a representative of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the current existing control will be strengthened.
Iliev also added that the disease has been absent from our country for many years and now it is usually detected not in its first stage, but when the animals already have a clear clinical picture.
Last week, the Acting Minister of Agriculture and Food, Georgi Tahov, stated that what the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BAFSA) can do on the subject has been done.