BUCHAREST, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Visiting European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan said on Thursday that the European Commission (EC) is considering granting financial support to help Romanian farmers affected by African swine fever.
"In order to eradicate in a timely manner and to maintain the current situation, we discussed what other financial, sanitary and similar measures can be taken to maintain the situation at a good point," he said in joint statements with Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila after their meeting.
"Besides control, supervision and intervention, we also think of financial measures to help farmers in these situations so as to overcome these moments," the European official added.
"We look forward to any positive ideas that can come to help us keep small and medium-sized farmers in business, through the European Investment Bank and other European investment funds," Hogan said.
The commissioner said that 2 million euros had already been allocated from the EC for the "veterinary aid part".
Hogan appreciated that the detection system in Romania is working well, taking into account the fact that more than 800 outbreaks have been detected.
The Romanian prime minister said on the occasion that she had asked Hogan to make sure the European Commission provides full technical and financial support for reducing the unfortunate impact that African swine fever had on Romanian agriculture.
African swine fever is a highly contagious, viral disease that infects pigs. It does not affect humans.
African swine fever outbreaks have been active in Romania since August 2017, but their number increased significantly in June this year.
The latest official statistics announced on Thursday showed that as many as 232,722 pigs were slaughtered after 898 outbreaks appeared in 12 of the country's 41 counties.
