Further FMD outbreak in Bulgaria
Domestic livestock infected with food-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been discovered in a fifth village in south-eastern Bulgaria.
Veterinary units of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency carrying out routine inspections discovered cases of FMD among domestic animals in the village of Bliznak, Malko Tarnovo Municipality.
The village of Bliznak is located near the village of Granichar where FMD was discovered recently 10 kilometres away from the border with Turkey.
A total of 22 cows, 63 buffaloes, 145 sheep, 109 goats, and 12 pigs, owned by a total of nine persons were found to be infected, and will be put to death in the village, while the owners will be compensated.
After 12 years without FMD cases, in late December 2010 all throughout February 2010, Bulgaria saw three outbreaks of FMD. After several hundred domestic animals were destroyed and a number local and EC-sanctioned measures were introduced, the authorities gained the upper hand.
The first of the new FMD outbreaks was detected on March 20, 2011, in three more villages in the south-eastern Bulgarian Strandzha Mountain, a day before the European Commission was expected to lift the measures, imposed on the Burgas District.
The new outbreak was found at a private farm near the village of Kirovo, close to the border with Turkey. In the next few days, FMD was also found in sheep from various villages in the poor and sparsely populated region.
Bulgarian Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, recently announced in that the Borisov Cabinet is going to go ahead with the plans to restore some of the Cold War era fences along the Bulgarian-Turkish border in order to prevent wild animals infected with FMD from trespassing into Bulgaria and infecting the domestic livestock.
