By September 15, there should have been at least a request for sheep vaccination against smallpox. We will have a meeting with –Dr. Patarinski, executive director of the Bulgarian Food and Agriculture Organization, to clarify the approaches and for the state to make a decision more quickly, said Simeon Karakolev, co-chairman of the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association (NOKA), in an interview with "Predi visci" on the Bulgarian National Radio. The state has not yet decided on the vaccination of sheep herds against smallpox.
Karakolev pointed out that the lesser evil is local vaccination, the so-called circular vaccination:
"There is no way that the entire sector can agree on vaccination. There are several options. Farmers must be informed and what the consequences are for each option. The second option is mass vaccination, and the third is the Greek scenario and exports will be blocked in the spring.We held 4 meetings in different regions and there are different opinions because farmers are not informed, because there are specifics of the regions. In Kardzhali they say "we don't need a vaccine, we only have one outbreak". It's not like that in Haskovo, a neighboring region, and their carpet is burning there. They are very worried there and don't want to reach the fields in Plovdiv. In Stara Zagora and Plovdiv, herds are being illegally vaccinated en masse. This should not be allowed by the state."
Karakolev reports that the current situation is due to the "delay of the state, because a decision on the vaccine is not being made."
He explained that under EC rules, blood tests are not required to be done in order to have a vaccination. And he gave an example of Velingrad from last year, when, based on the clinical picture, it was insisted that the herds be destroyed.
And he explained that the consequences of zonal vaccination are that restrictions are applied only in the zones with the vaccine and more stringent monitoring will be required.
The co-chair of NOKA announced that according to official information from the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and customs declarations, sheep's cheese is exported for 6.20 euros per kg.
Karakolev commented on the statement of the dairy processor Dimitar Zorov about his doubts about the number of herds and insisted on re-categorizing the farms in our country.
"Zorov can talk as he wants. There are expert statistics on milk entering the processing plants. There are 300,000 registered sheep in our country. A large part of the livestock is raised for meat. And in addition to the milk produced, which goes into enterprises, there is also as much realized by the farmers themselves. They make cheese for their own consumption. Most of the farmers are already registered for direct sales on the market", commented Simeon Karakolev.
And he predicts that Zorov is saying this because processors like him will become "superfluous", because farmers will turn them into processing enterprises.
This will happen when they cooperate and "this is the natural course of development, as in Western Europe".
"In our country it is still like that, because one crushes the other, because it has great market power. The formula is like in Western Europe. We are trying to do this, but it is not with a magic wand. First, there must be conditions for development," commented Karakolev.