Bulgaria to cull almost 200 rare pigs in African swine fever outbreak

Bulgarian veterinary authorities said on Wednesday they would cull almost 200 pigs from a rare local breed after detecting an outbreak of African swine fever at a small pig farm in the east of the country.

The outbreak was detected at a farm for the East Balkan Swine breed in the village of Yunets, close to the Black Sea city of Varna, after 15 of the 212 pigs there died, Bulgaria’s food safety agency said.

Bulgaria has had to cull more than 170,000 pigs since 2019, when the virus hit several breeding farms in the Balkan country.