Jordan halts Romanian livestock imports
Munther Rifai, the Jordanian ministry’s assistant secretary general for livestock, told local news agency Petra that while bluetongue disease was detected among livestock from Romania, it was not contagious to humans.
Romanian media have reported that the latest instances of bluetongue disease have been detected in the south of the country.
In its updated report from 1 September, the OIE said that, to date, there had been 34 outbreaks of the disease in Romania, with 69 cases of animals affected by bluetongue.
According to data released by the Jordanian ministry, Romania is the second-largest exporter of meat to Jordan, with imports ranging between 300,000 and 400,000 head of cattle and sheep per year.
Other leading exporters to the Jordanian market include Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Sudan, said Rifai.
Bluetongue is an insect-borne viral disease to which all species of ruminants are susceptible, according to the OIE. However, the disease poses no danger to human health.
To combat the spread of the disease, Romania’s deputy prime minister for national security and minister of the interior Gabriel Oprea has requested the country’s National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) to implement appropriate measures at national level, the ministry said in a statement on 26 August.
Acting in his capacity as president of the National Committee for Emergency Situations, Oprea requested ANSVSA to prevent or limit the transmission of the disease nationwide following the detection of 73 cattle and five sheep affected by bluetongue in the Buzau province, in south-eastern Romania.
As a result, the authority will be provided with funds to combat the disease, the ministry said in the statement. Under the plan, the money is to be acquired from the reserve fund of the country’s government, which is included in the Romanian state budget for 2014.
