Swine fever in Romania: 1.5 tons of infected meat sold in local market while the country still fights the virus

About 1.5 tons of pork infected with swine fever was sold in the central market of Targu Jiu, a city in Romania’s Gorj county, Nicolae Calescu, the head of the Sanitary-Veterinary and Food Safety Directorate (DSVSA), told local Agerpres. The virus was discovered only after the meat coming from a local farm was sold.

The pigs from a farm in Arges county were slaughtered on October 19, and on the same day about 1.5 tons of pork entered the market in Targu Jiu, Calescu said. Nine days later DSVSA was notified that meat infected with swine fever entered Gorj county, more precisely the market in Targu Jiu. DSVSA initiated a control at the market but the meat had already been sold.

“At the time of the control we didn’t find any gram of pork from this lot, it had been sold, we questioned the traders […] The lot came from the farm in Arges where the disease was later found, and meat from this place was found in other counties as well, not only in Gorj county,” Nicolae Calescu explained. He added that the traders in the Targu Jiu market didn’t know that the meat was infected.

Romania is still fighting with the African swine fever virus, which seriously affected the country’s pork exports and the meat processing sector. The number of swine fever outbreaks in Romania reached almost 1,000 in October, according to official data.

A recent Coface Romania study revealed that the revenues of the meat processing and preservation sector in Romania decreased in 2018 by about 19% compared to the previous year, given that the African swine fever has wiped out over RON 1 billion from the turnover of the profile companies, local Economica.net reported.

The sector’s consolidated revenues decreased from RON 6.13 billion in 2017 to only RON 4.96 billion in 2018, a minimum of the last 5 years. Meanwhile, although the net consolidated result at sector level increased to 3.5% in 2018 (from 1.7% the year before), 35% of companies recorded a net loss at the end of 2018.

(Photo source: Pixabay.com)