Bulgaria culls 24,000 pigs to contain ASF

In a report delivered to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Bulgarian authorities report about these outbreaks in Shumen province, in the east of the country.

The outbreak on the largest of the 3 infected farms was discovered on January 3, near the town Nikola Kozlevo, in the north of Shumen province. The farm contained 24,000 pigs, of which in total 64 animals were found to have died of ASF. The remainder was culled.

Read more on pig production in Bulgaria.

In addition, 2 smaller-sized farms have also been found infected on December 30. These occurred in the south of the same province, near the town of Byal Bryag, which is roughly 80km south of the other outbreak. The larger of the 2 farms had 153 pigs with 2 pigs having died of ASF, the smaller had 22 animals and 1 pig had died of ASF. All other animals were culled on the farms.

9th Commercial farm to be hit in Bulgaria

As Table 1 shows, the farm in Nikola Kozlevo is the 9^th large commercial farm in Bulgaria to be hit by ASF and the 3^rd largest so far. Ever since the virus was discovered in October 2018 in the country, it has steadily expanded over the country.