"Pig Amnesty" for small farmers

Small farmers have been given a 'pig amnesty' until Friday, October 23rd to register their swine with the authorities, as a part of measures aimed at containing the spread of African swine flu, Agriculture Minister Jan Mičovsky (OLaNO) has announced. Those who fail to register the pigs in their possession could face fines amounting to hundreds or even thousands of euro as of October 26th. "There are 7,100 pig farms in Slovakia with a total of 520,000 animals. Of this large number, a total of 360,000 pigs belong to a mere 26 farms. These are in great danger, as we don't know how many unregistered studs there are around. In addition, we don't know whether they've adopted measures to minimise the risk of spreading African swine flu," said Mičovsky.