Minister of Agriculture requests Brussels financial aid for Romanian farmers affected by African swine flu

Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea requested in Brussels financial aid for the Romanian farmers affected by the African swine flu and the radical measures of intervention needed to be taken. 

"Romania appeals thusly for the EU's financial aid, granted under Regulation nr. 652 of 2004 and Regulation nr. 1308 of 2013," Petre Daea declared, at the Council for Agriculture Ministers of the EU countries. 

Petre Daea highlighted that, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), Romania is at war with the African swine flu on a surface of nearly 1,400 kilometers on the Eastern border of the EU, of which 274 kilometers of land frontier, more than 1,000 kilometrs of river frontier and approximately 32 kilometers of maritime border. Since the beginning of 2017 the African swine flu was confirmed in both neighboring countries to Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, at distances smaller than 30 kilometers away from the national border. Knowing the imminent danger of the virus near its borders, the Romanian state institutions have taken the established measures of prevention and activated the designated structures for preventing it to reaching the country," Petre Daea explained. 

African swine flu outbreaks have been active in Romania since August 2017, but their number has risen greatly during the month of June this year, after the first suspicions of African swine flu were confirmed in towns situated on the Chilia branch of the Danube. In June, veterinary doctors sacrificed 1,715 swine from private households from several towns in the Delta zone of Tulcea county and began the euthanasia of 44,580 swine from a commercial exploitation situated in the vicinity of Tulcea municipality.