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Roundup: Lithuania struggling to curb African Swine Fever

Xinhua, August 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

The outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) is gaining pace in eastern Lithuania with three new cases registered on Friday, marking a year of unsuccessful efforts to fight the serious disease.

New cases on Friday raised the total number of the fever in the Trakai region to six in only a week, according to the country's state food and veterinary service.

Currently, police and special services are working in the territory to control the movement of people and vehicles and conduct disinfections.

All infected pigs were found at three small farms. Veterinary officials say the disease may have been spread by farmers.

Jonas Milius, head of the state food and veterinary service, said the situation in Trakai is very complicated.

"The disease has spread to two villages, and after conducting an investigation, we have more findings that the farmers themselves could have spread the virus," said Milius in a press release.

Due to the irresponsible behavior of farmers, the case will turn to prosecutors.

"Yesterday we found out that some of the farmers had tried to hide the facts about the dead pigs, therefore we will send this information to law enforcement authorities," said Milius.

A fresh outbreak of ASF in Trakai marks a year of failed efforts to curb the disease, which is not harmful to humans, but is lethal to pigs and boars.

Lithuanian authorities have been implementing preventive measures since January 2014, when ASF was first found in a hunted boar. Six months later, the virus was found at highly safe farms in eastern Lithuania. A total of 19,000 pigs were slaughtered due to the infection at Idavang, a Danish-owned farming company.

Since then, the disease has spread to the central and eastern parts of the country. The extraordinary situation is to remain in six out of 44 districts for the rest of the year. According to the state food and veterinary service, 74 infected boars have been found in more than 60 places so far this year.

The ministry of agriculture says more funds from the European Commission are needed to help the small Baltic country fight the disease.

"It will be impossible to stop ASF if funding from the European Commission is not sufficient to take all the measures, including preventive," agriculture minister Virginija Baltraitiene told local media on Monday.

"This is a signal for the European Commission the disease here is rampant," Algis Baravykas, director of Lithuanian Pig Producers Association, told business news website vz.lt when commenting on the recent ASF cases in Trakai.

According to the website, the association and state authorities are considering banishing small farmers from pig production to prevent ASF spreading. One of the ideas is to pay compensation and ban farms with less than 100 pigs. Endit