African swine fever is spreading unstoppably in Bosnia and Herzegovina. New hotspots appear every day in the Semberija area. The presence of this infection was also confirmed in the Brcko District of BiH and the municipality of Šamac. Farmers are in huge losses, damages could amount to several tens of millions of marks. During that time, the Bijeljina and entity authorities politicize the problem.
A black record in Bijeljina, where a state of emergency is in force. By the end of July, there will be the first compensation payments for all those whose pigs died from African plague. Three million BAM was approved from the compensation fund for this purpose.
The rulebook will be published on Monday, and so far more than 50% of the data has been processed when it comes to damage assessment. The first payments will begin by the end of the month – promised the relevant entity ministry. There was a black record in Bijeljina yesterday. More than 900 pigs were transported and buried. Farmers are in a panic.
“I lie down with fear, I wake up with fear. I carry syringes, spray, stir soda… all the protections that follow a farm,” says farmer Duško Petrić.
All material and technical means were provided on the ground: barriers were installed, two specialized vehicles were provided for the removal of dead animals, and the number of inspectors was increased. As of yesterday, 5,080 pigs were euthanized. Damages, according to the first estimates, are in the millions.
“Big farms have the biggest problems, people should be compensated and the state should compensate in any way possible. We producers believe that here in Semberija we will be without livestock for a long time in terms of pig farming,” emphasizes Savo Bakajlić, president of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Semberija and Majevica.
“What can we do – to maximally protect the part of the fund that is healthy, to use the meat for food, and not to wait for the disease to spread and for death to occur and the removal of corpses and dead animals”, says Savo Minić, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and water supply of the RS.
In the coming days, farmers expect to resolve the issue of selling healthy livestock from areas not affected by the infection. The goods, they say, will accumulate, which is why the supply will be higher, and therefore the prices will certainly be lower. They state that the biggest problem is how to protect livestock from infection.
