Romania's sheep exports could resume by the end of the year, as the national vaccination campaign is due to begin around 1 October, President of the National Veterinary Sanitary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) Alexandru Bociu said on Wednesday.
"If it were up to me, I would like exports to resume as of yesterday. I gave 1 October as the deadline, the date when we start vaccinating, but if the vaccines arrive on the 27th or 28th, we will start the vaccination. (...) The faster we all move at national level, the more the information conveyed to the public is accurate, believe me, the more we will manage to take important steps towards unblocking these exports. Once we have completed vaccination at national level, we will be audited by representatives of the European Commission and I am convinced that exports will be unblocked. (...) I believe that we will be able to unblock these exports by the end of the year," Bociu told a news conference.
He estimated that vaccination at national level against sheep pox, and in Constanta and Tulcea counties also against Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), could be completed within 30-45 days.
Romania currently has approximately 1.3 million doses of vaccine available free of charge from the European Commission, while the total requirement is estimated at around 11 million doses, most of them for vaccination against sheep pox.
"This entire vaccination campaign will be free of charge for farmers, funded by the Romanian state. Farmers will not bear any costs for this vaccination. At the moment, we have 1.3 million doses of free vaccine. I am not hiding the fact that I have discussed with experts from DG SANTE and asked them to give us as much free vaccine as possible. Perhaps we will be in for a surprise and receive more vaccine than we would like. My colleague spoke today with representatives of the World Health Organization and made this request, asking whether they could make a free vaccine available to us," the ANSVSA president explained.
At the same time, he said that, together with the Agriculture Minister, they were looking for the best options for quickly purchasing the necessary vaccine doses directly from the governments of countries where it is produced, at the lowest possible price, and warned that he would not let "intermediaries have a field day."
In his view, a dose of vaccine currently costs less than one leu, according to the ANSVSA calculations. Unfortunately, this vaccine cannot yet be produced in Romania.
Bociu also mentioned that discussions are under way with the European Commission over the possibility of covering around 30% of the vaccination costs.
According to the quoted source, resuming exports is essential for the sheep sector, as Romania has expanded its foreign markets in recent years. "Over the past four years, we have opened new markets, Algeria, which bought 630,000 head from Romania this year and more than 150,000 carcasses. Morocco, which has bought hundreds of thousands of live sheep and carcasses from Romania in recent years, Tunisia, which is a new market. They are all open. At the moment, we have not identified a single country in the Middle East or a single third country that does not accept vaccinated animals," the ANSVSA president said.
Asked whether there would be enough veterinarians for the vaccination campaign, Bociu said that work would be carried out together with contracted veterinarians and that, if necessary, he would deploy staff from within the system, as this is "a state of emergency for us."
The ANSVSA said that implementing the Action Plan, drawn up following consultations with and recommendations from European experts from EuVET, is a condition for the resumption and stabilisation of animal exports. The authority stressed that the measures do not affect trade in meat, carcasses, milk and dairy products from free zones, while slaughterhouses and processing units can operate without restrictions.
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