Over 80 specialists in the field of animal health and welfare – ANSA representatives from all the regions, as well as Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment and „Moldsilva” Agency gathered today, September 27th, within a working meeting organized with the support of the EU funded project „Assistance to the Implementation of the EU High Level Advisers’ Mission”.
The main aim of the meeting was to take stock of the implementation of the Action Plan approved by the Commission for Emergency Situations regarding the control and eradication of African Swine Fever on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. The participants have shared the challenges in this area and the sanitary veterinary measures implemented in the existing outbreaks. They were informed on the experience of Lithuania and measures applied by its responsible authorities in diminishing the disease consequences by implementing administrative, bio-security, control and preventive measures, and by organizing informational and awareness campaigns.
According to the organizers, the meeting will contribute to a better coordination of efforts in implementing the necessary measures in view of preventing the spread of the disease and eradicating the existing outbreaks, so that the consequences of the virus are diminished or even eradicated at national level.
African Swine Fever is an „economic disease”, as there is no treatment and vaccine against it, therefore significant amounts from the state budget and insurance companies would be spent for massive animal slaughter and disposal of carcasses, payment of compensations for individual animal keepers and commercial farms, big amounts of infected feed would be forbidden for export, and animals and animal origin products trade would be limited within areas affected by the virus .
