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Agriculture Minister Giedrius Surplys says every pig farmer raising up to 100 pigs within a swine fever zone will be paid 100 euros for every renounced pig, and farmers will also get addition 1,500 euros for the purchase of other animals.
“First of all, we offer every small pig farmer in areas with swine fever to consider the economically-beneficial government offer and start raising other animals,” Surplys told a press conference on Thursday.
In his words, farmers who will reject the offer will be able to get 1,500 euros for bolstering biosafety on their farms.
The agriculture minister says renouncing pig farming might slow the sprad of swine fever in the country.
The financial incentive could apply to around 6,000 farmers raising 18,000 pigs in 14 Lithuanian districts with detected swine fever cases.
An outbreak of swine fever was detected last week on a farm operated by Denmark’s Idavang in Lithuania’s district of Akmenė, with all 19,500 pigs set to be culled.
Figures from the State Food and Veterinary Service show there’ve been almost 40 outbreaks of swine fever on small farms this year and around 2,300 pigs had to be culled.
Swine fever started spreading in Lithuania in late 2013, brought by boars from Belarus. It spread not only in Lithuania, but also in Latvia, Estonia and Poland in 2014.