Greece has banned imports of pork from its northern neighbour Bulgaria due to outbreaks of African swine fever, Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva has said.
Bulgaria has detected more than 20 outbreaks of African swine fever in pigs in industrial farms or backyards in the northern part of the Black Sea state, culling more than 50,000 pigs ths month.
Reuters reported that Mr Taneva told the Greek parliament that checks at the Bulgarian-Greece border would be stepped up and on entering Greece, and the luggage of all visitors would be checked for banned meat products.
The move by Greece comes as Bulgarian veterinary authorities yesterday reported that it would cull 17,000 pigs after detecting an outbreak of ASF at a breeding farm in the northeast, the fourth industrial farm hit by the fast-spreading virus.
Reuters reported that the outbreak was detected at a farm in the village of Popina, near the Danube town of Silistra. Some 87,000 pigs have been killed on another three farms in the past 10 days.
European Union-member Bulgaria has so far detected more than 20 outbreaks of African swine fever at industrial or backyard farms in the northern part of the country.