The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, David Vlojić, has announced a tightening of measures against African swine fever. The disease has so far been confirmed in 89 facilities where pigs are kept — 44 in the Osijek-Žumberak county and 45 in the Krapina-Zagorje county.
Just one day, 12 new positive cases were confirmed. The number of culled animals has reached 2,822 pigs, the minister stated at an emergency press conference.
Since 2023, more than €50 million has been invested in combating the disease and strengthening biosecurity. Despite this, the minister warned that gross violations of regulations are still being recorded. In Jalžabet, a local veterinarian prevented the unloading of more than 300 pigs without the required identification marks, brought in from Slavonia. Recently, a large number of unmarked pigs were also discovered in the Gorski Kotar region.
"Responsibility for one person may have avoided a catastrophe. That is why we are calling on all veterinarians, producers, hunters and all participants in the system to strictly implement the prescribed measures," the minister said.
The National Crisis Staff for African swine fever will meet early next week. An urgent revision of biosecurity on pig farms in the Brod-Posavina, Požega-Slavonia and Virovitica-Podravina counties is expected, in cooperation with the Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food (HAPIH). Hunters will intensively reduce the wild boar population, while veterinary inspections will focus on farms with the highest risk.
The infection ring is approaching the largest production systems, the minister pointed out. Producers and the processing industry will therefore jointly seek a model for the timely placement and processing of a large number of healthy pigs. "Our goal is to euthanise the smallest number of animals and save as much domestic production as possible," concluded Vlojić.
Due to new outbreaks in the settlements of Ladnja and Kućanci, the Ministry of Agriculture has issued a new decree on the expansion of the protection zone and the monitoring zone, in line with European regulations.
