PM asks for modification of law on compensations for people with pigs dying of swine fever

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, on Tuesday, while attending the meeting of the African swine fever task force, where they discussed measures to reduce effects of the African swine fever virus in Romania, said that there is need of a change in the legislation, so that the people who notify the authorities and voluntarily bring their ill animals to the area that the authorities established is under a state of alert to receive compensation.

"It is very important that we take the necessary measures to prevent the African swine fever virus from spreading and eradicate this disease," said Dancila.

The PM coordinated the task force meeting focusing on measures meant to reduce the effects of the African swine fever in Romania, says a release of the gov't remitted to AGERPRES.

"The ANSVSA (National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority) representatives informed the participants in the meeting about the current situation in the areas affected by the African swine fever and the measures taken to control, combat and eradicate the disease in the Tulcea County, where a state of alert has been declared. In order to stop the disease from spreading, we established six filters along the border of the Tulcea County and another two at the affected farms, which will verify if the quarantine measures and traffic restrictions are being observed. Moreover, more specialized personnel arrived in the same area, to assess the situation on the ground," says the same source.

ANSVSA collaborated with the Ministry of Environment to prevent the virus from spreading among the wild boars in the Reservation of the Danube Delta Biosphere, by identifying and neutralizing the ill animals.

According to the Government, the PM asked the involved institutions - ANSVSA, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment, the MAI (Ministry of Interior), MApN (Ministry of National Defence) - to cooperate more closely in implementing the necessary measures.

Participating in the task force working on reducing the effects of the African swine fever were the Deputy PM and Minister of Environment, Gratiela Gavrilescu, the Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, the Secretary of State with MAI, Raed Arafat, the Secretary of State with the MApN, Mircea Dusa, and the Deputy President of the ANSVSA, Laszlo Nagz Csutak.

The Government also specified that the African swine fever does not affect humans, and that "there isn't even the smallest risk for the population to contract the disease."