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Bulgaria Registers First Case of FMD in 12 Years

The first case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has occurred in Bulgaria in the past 12 years on Wednesday.

A wild boar with FMD has been killed in the region of the south eastern Bulgarian city of Burgas. A 10 km security zone has been established and all vehicles passing through the region are being disinfected. All living animal trade in the Burgas region has been stopped.

The European Commission has already been informed about the accident.

FMD is highly contagious and, while it is not so dangerous for humans, a possible outbreak may cause severe economical damages, the Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov has explained.

"
Bulgaria may face a ban on the export of animal products if the disease is to spread,"
Naydenov has said.

Several centers of infection have already been registered in Turkey.

FMD is a sometimes fatal viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic animals such as cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs. Humans are very rarely affected.

Poor people,several of my friends lost all their stock when there was foot and mouth in england. The compensation only just covers the cost of replacing young stock but not all the time money and effort that has gone into keeping them. Lets hope they get it under control soon.

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FMD Outbreak Crawls Further in South east Bulgaria

A sixth village in South east Bulgaria has been contaminated with food-and-mouth disease in the past four weeks leading to the slaughter of hundreds more domestic animals.

The latest FMD flare was found Thursday by inspectors of Bulgaria's Food Safety Agency in the village of Dolno Yabalkovo, Sredets Municipality, which shows that the FMD is crawling east with most of the previous cases being in the Malko Tarnovo and Tsarevo municipalities.

The village of Dolno Yabalkovo is located 4.5-km away from Bulgaria's border with Turkey, and it is within the 3-km safety radius from the village of Kirovo where a FMD outbreak was detected earlier. The FDM has been found to be transferred to Bulgarian domestic animals by wild animals crossing from Turkey into the region of the Strandzha mountain.

A total of 325 goats and sheep and 45 cows and buffaloes owned by 6 persons will be put to death and their corpses buried in the village in order to contain the spread of FMD, while the owners will be compensated.

Earlier this week, veterinary units of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency carrying out routine inspections discovered Monday 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 some 10 km 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.

After 12 years without FMD cases, in late December all throughout February, Bulgaria saw three outbreaks of FMD originally brought into Bulgaria by a wild boar from Turkey. 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 - Goliamo Bukovo, Fakia and Momina Tsarkva near the town of Sredets.

Last week Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov announced in Parliament 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.

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Sharpshooters Join Bulgaria's FMD Fight

Police sharpshooters are going to take part in the fight against foot-and-mouth disease, FMD, in the Bulgarian Strandzha region.

The information was reported Tuesday by the Director of the Food Safety Agency, Dr. Yordan Voynov, cited by the Bulgarian National Radio.

According to Voynov, there are no new outbreaks, but infected domestic animals, roaming around without known owners, must be exterminated and this is where sharpshooters would come in.

"
I asked the Chief Secretary of the Interior, Kalin Georgiev, for assistance and as early as today sharpshooters will arrive. We might also need helicopters to find the animals in the woods, and police will help us with that too,"
the Agency Head explained.

At the end of March, the Agency announced that as many as 700 animals might have to be euthanized to prevent the spread of FMD in Strandzha, triggering mass farmers' protest rallies and blockades.

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Turkey Moves to Protect Itself from Bulgaria's FMD Outbreak

Turkish regions along the Bulgarian border are taking measures to prevent the spread of food-and-mouth disease from Bulgaria even though the Bulgarian authorities claim the infection came from Turkey.

The Turkish authorities have suspended all movement or evacuation of animals in the region of Kirklareli, known in Bulgaria as Lozengrad, the Bulgarian national radio reported citing Hasan Cebi, head of the agricultural directorate in the province.

The measure will be in place until May 9, 2011. What is more, the authorities in European Turkey are moving to start immunization of local domestic animals against FMD. According to EU sources, the European Commission has provided Turkey with 850 000 immunization doses even though the Turkish state has not provided official information.

"
We've introduced these measures because of the FMD outbreak in Bulgaria. We have urged the local population to be careful in order not to allow the spread of the disease,"
the Kirklareli official is quoted as saying.

In January-February and then again since mid March Bulgaria has been struggling to contain the spread of FMD, a disease that does not affect humans is devastating to livestock;
because of it, on Wednesday the Bulgarian government decided to restore the Cold War fences along the Turkish border since it is believed that wild animals brought the infection from Turkey. The Bulgarian authorities have slaughtered thousands of animals to contain the FMD in the recent months.

FMD is not dangerous for humans but is devastating for livestock.

What is the latest on the outbreak

we are thinking of buying a calf later this year