Baltic countries, Poland agree on joint fight against African swine fever

Ministers of agriculture of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Veterinary General of Poland agreed to combine forces in fighting contagion of the African swine fever (ASF) here on Wednesday.
All parties met in Vilnius to discuss the outbreak of ASF in the region and agreed to establish a joint working group. Jonas Milius, head of the Lithuanian State Food and Veterinary Service, will lead the group, announced the Ministry of Agriculture.
"ASF doesn't recognize state borders, and we need to address this issue from the point of Europe as a whole and not from the point of four countries," said Virginija Baltraitiene, minister of agriculture of Lithuania in a statement.
All parties of the meeting agreed to ask for financial support from the European Commission (EC). According to the ministry, the EC is due to be asked to provide fund for medical research of ASF and a possible creation of vaccine.
Milius also hoped for larger compensations from the EC on costs related to fighting against ASF.
"Now we are compensated at a rate of 50 percent of all costs amounting at least 9 million litas till now," said Millius to Lithuanian business news web vz.lt.
"We'd like to be compensated in full, and we'll apply the EC for this reason," added Milius.
All parties agreed on plans to ask the EC to help the farmers in refusing pig cultivation and changing their farming activity in regions affected by ASF.
The first case of ASF for domestic herd of pigs in Lithuania was registered last week in Idavang complex in Ignalina district. Soon afterwards around 20,000 pigs in Idavang complex were slaughtered to avoid the spread of the disease.
After registering the first case of ASF the state of emergency has been declared in Ignalina district. Emergency situation has been announced in Alytus, Lazdijai, Varena, Salcininkai and Trakai districts since the first case of ASF was found on a hunted wild boar in Januray.