The extension of the restrictive measures for the transport and slaughter of animals that expire next Sunday, August 4, for another week was announced by the Minister of Rural Development and Food Kostas Tsiaras at a press conference on Thursday.

He said that he will send a letter to his counterparts in the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers, through which he will ask to discuss the issue of plague of small ruminants at the upcoming September Council of Ministers to jointly take measures to protect livestock, but also to consider any possible additional solutions to the question of economic consequences for farmers.

In parallel, he announced the activation of two additional veterinary labs which will contribute to faster analyses of PCR samples.

Tsiaras announced the formation of a committee of experts whose task will be to analyse the epidemiological study and identify the omissions or illegal acts that led to the outbreak of the disease. The committee's results will be forwarded to the Larissa prosecutor, who has started a preliminary investigation.

Finally, he noted that as soon as the operation to contain and eradicate the plague is completed, the entire livestock operation model will be redesigned. All methods and ways will be sought to cover as much as possible the organic gaps of the country's veterinary services and the model will be redesigned, in order to limit the possibility of the repetition of similar phenomena.

Additionally, according to data from the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food, in the surveillance and protection zones, throughout the territory, there are 1,991 farms and the control has been completed on 1,723, while controls are pending on another 208 farms. In total, there are 506,285 sheep and goats in the surveillance zones. Of these, the control of 467,535 animals has been completed.

As Tsiaras pointed out, the tracking of cases in different regions so far "shows the adequate way the Greek state has worked in this matter".
 

Citing Greece and Romania as an example, he pointed out that in Greece so far 13,000 animals have been killed out of a livestock population of 15,000,000, while in Romania, with a livestock population of 12,000,000, animal killings exceed 210,000 have been killed out of a livestock population of 15,000,000, while in Romania, with a livestock population of 12,000,000, animal killings exceed 210,000.
"The government will stand by the livestock farmers who have suffered a lot from the spread of the plague of small ruminants", Tsiaras pointed out adding that "we will stand by the people of the primary sector".
As he underlined, it is extremely important to immediately limit the spread of the disease as it will also reduce the economic damage to the livestock industry. Afterwards, according to him, the damage to livestock will be recorded.
Finally, he reiterated that plague of small ruminants poses no threat to public health and humans.