PM demands maximal mobilization to prevent spread of swine flu in Moldova

Chisinau, 27 September /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip today summoned an emergency meeting of the Commission for Emergency Situations, to discuss measures needed to prevent the spread of the African swine flu in Moldova, the government’s communication and media relations department has reported.   

According to the latest information, two hotbeds with suspicion of infection with the swine flu virus were discovered in the Mosana and Cernoleuca villages, northern Donduseni district. Specialists informed that samples taken from dead animals had been submitted to an accredited laboratory from Spain and their results are to be received on 28 September. The virus was presumably brought through the import of meat products from Ukraine, where more cases of infection with African swine flu were registered.  

Prime Minister Pavel Filip demanded that the authorities prove maximal responsibility and mobilization and undertake all needed measures to prevent the spread of this virus in Moldova.

“I demand that we have a quite serious approach. The virus can affect full industries, beginning from breeding pigs, and ending with the processing of meat and cultivation of fodder. We need to approve a concrete plan of measures due to provide for responsibility of each institution separately,” Pavel Filip stressed.   

Following discussions, the Commission for Emergency Situations approved an action plan on preventing the spread of the African swine flu in Moldova. The document sees, inter alia, that the National Agency for Food Safety will coordinate the actions of preventing the spread of the African swine flu in Moldova and will provide the needed funds to carry out activities to control the virus. At the same time, the authorities will carry out controls at the border checkpoints, in order to remove possibility of importing temporarily banned goods of animal origin in Moldova.  

At the same time, the Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry, jointly with the National Agency for Food Safety, will work out a draft government decision on prohibiting the import of living animals receptive to this virus, meat products from risk regions, as well as of fodder from the regions hit by the African swine flu. The decision will be urgently considered at a cabinet meeting due on 28 September.

To reduce at the maximum possibilities of spread of the African swine flu in Moldova, an ample awareness raising campaign will be organized, to inform about possible risks and ways of acting in case of discovering hotbeds of infection with this virus.

The African swine flu is a contagious disease which affects the species of domestic and wild pigs. The virus is not transmissible to the man, but can trigger huge economic losses.   

(Editor A. Raileanu)