Two herds confirmed positive for sheep and goat plague

Two more herds tested positive for ovine rinderpest or sheep and goat plague – in the villages of Sharkovo and Bolyarovo, Strandzha region, South Bulgaria, Bulgaria’s Minister of Agriculture Rumen Porozhanov said on 19^th of July at a briefing after the ad-hoc meeting of the Interdepartmental Staff this morning. However, the euthanasia of the animals in the area planned for today has been canceled in order to wait for the final results of the samples taken.

Six are the outbreaks of sheep and goat plague – Bolyarovo, Sharkovo, Voden, Kosti, Kraynovo and Strandzha.

There are two herds that have been confirmed positive for sheep and goat plague - one of Grandma Dora in Sharkovo, the other is in Bolyarovo, the Minister of Agriculture said.

The 10-kilometer zone around the outbreaks will be disinfected and the control stations will have additional equipment. A local co-ordination headquarters is also set up to address the situation in plague-affected settlements.

Meanwhile, all the disinfection that is needed in the settlements with disinfection at the entrances and elsewhere is under intensive control, the minister explained.

The planned euthanasia of infected animals is cancelled.

Valentin Radev, Minister of the Interior: There are two reasons - one is that we sre waiting for test results and we are trying to contain the outbreaks and the second is this feeling of hesitation in the political trust.

The final test results are expected to be ready in the next two days.

In connection with the disputes over the necessity of euthanasia and the reliability of the samples, the Minister of Interior Valentin Radev and the Minister of Agriculture Rumen Porozhanov asked to be heard in the Parliament in tomorrow's sitting.