The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) has established a new outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) at an industrial farm in the village of Popina, Sitovo municipality, Silistra district. The positive samples were laboratory confirmed today, July 30, 2019, by the National Reference Laboratory at the National Diagnostic Veterinary Research Institute in Sofia.

The affected pig farm is home to 17,000 animals. This is the fourth case of a confirmed outbreak of ASF in an industrial farm and the first in the area.

Measures have been taken to control and eliminate the disease in accordance with the rules of European and national legislation and the Emergency Control Plan for ASF. Enforced humane killing and disposal of all infected and contact pigs in the affected site, as well as of pigs in the risk zone with unclear health status and origin, are subject to regulatory requirements.

The BFSA also confirmed a new outbreak of African swine fever in domestic pigs in the Ruse district, Byala, in private farms that house 9 unregistered pigs. The settlement is within 10 km of the surveillance zone established around the outbreak of a registered family farm type A in the village of Pet kladentsi, Byala municipality, confirmed on July 16, 2019. Samples were confirmed positive for African swine fever virus (ASF) as of today, 30 July 2019.

A new case of African fever was also detected in 6 feral pigs in Svishtov municipality, Veliko Turnovo district.