SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria reported on Saturday an outbreak of African swine fever at a breeding farm for pigs near the Danube city of Ruse in the north east of the Balkan country.
“All pigs on the holding, or 17,000, will be culled,” a spokeswoman for the national food safety authority told Reuters.
All home-raised pigs in a 3-kilometer quarantine zone, established around the farm in the village of Nikolovo, might also be culled, she added.
Bulgaria has stepped up measures to prevent the spread of deadly African swine fever after reporting more than 30 cases of the disease in several regions, including border provinces with Romania, in July.
African swine fever is a highly contagious disease that affects pigs and wild boar. It does not affect humans.
Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Gareth Jones