The drama for breeders from the Gniezno district began less than a month ago: on July 4, the first ASF outbreak in the area was confirmed in the town of Ujazd in the Kiszkowo commune. In response to this event and taking into account the specificity of pig breeding in this town, the district veterinarian in Gniezno decided to preventively kill 16 herds of pigs, 13 of which were located in the town of Ujazd itself. As we informed earlier, after the slaughter of four herds, as a result of pressure from the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Michał Kołodziejczak, the activities of the Veterinary Inspection were interrupted:
While in the first phase of the disease we were all looking for a solution other than culling the herds (e.g. placing them in quarantine), in hindsight we see that perhaps the decision of the district doctor was right. Four ASF outbreaks have already been confirmed in this town, and we currently have another herd in which the disease is suspected – says Remigiusz Bilski, a breeder from the Gniezno district.
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Is stopping the preventive slaughter of herds in the Gniezno district a good decision?
Sale of animals from the ASF area
The farmer experienced disease outbreaks firsthand. Even though he runs production in a neighboring commune and is nearly 10 kilometers away from the nearest outbreak, he had the misfortune to find himself in an ASF-risk area, which is why he has to deal with all the consequences of this state of affairs:
– Each subsequent outbreak extends the herd lockdown period. With the consent of the Veterinary Inspection, we can sell fattened pigs to selected meat processing plants (which will declare that the meat from our pigs will be subjected to appropriate thermal treatment), but there are both economic and organizational problems. We are already reconciled with the fact that we will receive a lower price for our fattened pigs. We know that we will lose money on this move, but we only want to get rid of the animals and not think about the fact that they will be too big. However, there is another problem. Slaughterhouses are happy to collect full truck loads of fattened pigs, but no one will send a transport for a batch of ten or twenty fattened pigs, and we also have farms offering such batches of animals in the region. However, there is still no consent to combine transports, says the breeder.
Bureaucratic absurdities
As our interlocutor emphasizes, farmers are disgusted and discouraged with the current situation:
– As a country, we have been fighting ASF for the eleventh year, and when the disease appears in a new district, we feel as if we were dealing with it for the first time. Procedures and patterns of conduct that should have been in place for years do not work. For example, obtaining permission to sell animals from an endangered area is a real bureaucratic process that takes several days. After such a period of time, it may turn out that the meat plant is no longer interested in purchasing our animals, says Remigiusz Bilski.
– There are also extreme situations. The pigs are overgrowing, they have less and less space, and the heat only complicates the situation. It is even worse in closed cycles, where with each cycle new animals are born and breeders have nothing to do with them. Of course, we do not blame the Veterinary Inspection for this state of affairs. They do what they can to simplify our lives and every herd from which fattened pigs can be transferred to the slaughterhouse is important to them. However, procedures also apply to them, says the farmer.
What about compensation?
As the breeder said, there are rumors from unofficial sources about support mechanisms offered by the state. There is talk of, among other things, granting preferential loans or compensation in exchange for the liquidation of pig farming. However, there is no mention of compensation for fattened pigs sold at a lower price due to ASF, which was in force not so long ago. Meanwhile, according to the breeder, the current purchase prices offered to farmers generate a loss of approximately PLN 180 per pig for fattening.
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Where do ASF outbreaks occur in areas free from feral pig fever?
