Experts from Romania's National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) have uncovered a flagrant case of falsified data in the national animal-traceability system and imposed major sanctions after finding 75 sheep physically present on a farm in Cluj County, although the electronic database listed them as culled in a disease outbreak in Tulcea.
According to the authority, falsifying traceability records and keeping in circulation animals officially registered as eliminated in disease outbreaks is a serious breach of the law and directly endangers national animal-health status and epizootic-control efforts.
ANSVSA said the case has "particularly serious repercussions", especially given Romania's coordinated work with European partners on managing Small Ruminant Plague. Measures ordered include withdrawal of operating rights, referral to criminal investigators, expanded system checks, and isolation and seizure of the animals for testing and expert examination.
ANSVSA president Alexandru Nicolae Bociu called the situation "a clear attempt at fraud", noting that electronically recording animals as killed, collecting compensation for them, and then keeping them alive and moving them across the country "sabotages food safety and the state's efforts to eradicate a disease that blocks national-level exports". He said the authority will apply the toughest administrative sanctions, withdraw system-operation rights and immediately notify prosecutors for falsification, use of falsified documents and hindering disease control.
Bociu ordered an urgent, expanded investigation. A control team is reviewing the full traceability of the animals' movements, as well as the role of economic operators and authorised veterinarians who entered the data into the system.
