It has been reported that Bulgaria “could lose its entire pig breeding industry and have 600,000 pigs culled” as a result of the spread of African swine fever (ASF).
According to an article published by Reuters, the Bulgarian deputy agriculture minister Yanko Ivanov has said that “the government had failed to prevent the spread of the virus, which has already hit more than a dozen districts”.
The publication also reported that industry officials fear it could cause damages of up to 2 billion levs ($1.15 billion).
The Reuters article noted “Bulgaria has so far detected more than 30 outbreaks of the disease, which is incurable in pigs but harmless to humans, at industrial or backyard farms and around 130,000 pigs have already been culled”.
Continuing it said: “An outbreak of ASF in China is forecast by experts to wipe out about a third of Chinese pork production this year, or 18 million tonnes, twice the amount of pork exported worldwide every year.”
It was also outlined that China is not the only country hit and there have been outbreaks in:
- Vietnam;
- Cambodia;
- Mongolia;
- North Korea;
- Laos;
- Parts of central and eastern Europe;
- Wild boars in Belgium.
It added that analysts have said “the price of pork in Bulgaria has increased by up to 30% in less than a month because of the outbreaks and could rise by a further 15% in the autumn”.
