After Russia, Romania also banned the import of pork and pork products from Moldova. The announcement was made by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania Achim Irimescu, IPN reports.

According to the official, the Romanian authorities took such a measure after cases of African swine fever, for which there is no vaccine, were confirmed in Moldova and Ukraine. The ban on imports, including by small traffic, is a mandatory measure, but it does not fully prevent danger. “The virus can enter by two ways: transported by people in food that contains infected pork and by wild boars. Regretfully, the wild boars pose about 70% of the risk,” stated Achim Irimescu.

According to him, if the disease reaches Romania, losses of millions of euros will be sustained. As there is no vaccine against African swine fever, the animals must be killed and burned. Furthermore, Romania would be banned from exporting to the EU, but it was just allowed to export after a ban that lasted for many years.

Russia banned the import of pork from Moldova after two suspect hotbeds of swine fever were reported in Mosana and Cernoleuca villages of Donduseni district on September 22. The presence of the virus was later confirmed by the Central Laboratory of Madrid, Spain.