OSIJEK, Croatia (Reuters) -Croatian breeders must cull nearly 12,000 pigs after an outbreak of African swine fever at farms in the east of the country, authorities said on Tuesday.
The disease, which is harmless to humans but highly contagious and deadly in pigs, was first detected at four farms in the Osijek-Baranja canton, including a large farm in Sokolovac breeding nearly 10,000 pigs and another with 1,600 pigs.
Surveillance of 400 farms in the eastern region found irregularities in necessary protection measures in 104 of them, state chief inspector Andrija Mikulic told a press conference in Osijek.
The disease, which has spread from Africa to Europe and Asia, has killed hundreds of millions of pigs, affecting global meat markets.
Agriculture minister David Vlajcic said that civil protection, police, veterinarians and local communities in two eastern cantons were all working together to prevent the spread of the disease to other parts of the country.
Vlajcic said police were controlling road transport and state borders with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where swine fever cases had been detected. He blamed illegal trade in pigs and wild boars for the outbreak, adding that hunters’ associations have been ordered to “eradicate” wild boars.
Croatia experienced a less serious outbreak of African swine fever in 2023 and Vlajcic said that lost pig stock since 2023 equates to 5% of the country’s total pig numbers.
(Reporting by Antonio Bronic and Daria Sito-SucicEditing by David Goodman)
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