Virginia Baltraitienė, Lithuania’s Minister of Agriculture told a press conference Tuesday that the task force created during the July 30 summit will be requesting 100% financing from the EC to cover prevention and control measures, disinfection material acquisitions, and the creation of a scientific research center that could possibly develop a vaccine against the disease, as well as co-ordinate communication work with the target population.
Like their counterparts in Latvia, pig farmers in Lithuania are concerned that compensation payments will barely cover the losses experienced from the large-scale culling of their pig herds, not to mention a year-long prohibition on keeping pigs henceforth. Thus Baltraitienė called also for EC support on behalf of ruined small-scale pig farmers who need help diversifying their animal husbandry practices away from swine-keeping.
Nevertheless, the minister refrained from specifying a sum, relating instead last year’s request by Lithuania for aid from the EC to address the swine fever outbreak in neighboring Belarus. Of the €30m asked for, only €7m was granted, she explained.
“This means we’ll be taking about much larger amounts this time – we have to estimate in the hundreds of millions,” she said.
