José Manuel Fernandes, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
Minister of Agriculture announces aid of 16 million euros. Flu of birds and blue tongue have already led to the slaughter of tens of thousands of animals in Portugal.
In an interview with the Minister of Agriculture, José Manuel Fernandes, started by painting a negative scenario: “With climate change we will have more and more pests and diseases“.
Blue language disease, for example, has already killed 50,000 animals in Portugal, but this is just the official data, which the minister ensures that it is much smaller than reality.
The flu flu will also have also taken to the slaughter of “tens of thousands of animals in the case of an aviary,” says José Manuel Fernandes.
Now, it is suspected of a fourth focus of infectionwhich is being evaluated. “We had three focuses. We are analyzing and waiting for the results of a suspicion of another focus, but there are no definitive results yet, ”says the minister.
The focus comes at a time when a new strain From the flu influenza appears in the US, where the problem gets worse, and in which the World Health Organization does not rule out the scenario of a future pandemia.
Currently, the government has already made available and 8 million euros to support producers affected by these two diseases and the storms “Dana” and “Kirk” last year.
The minister announces that this amount will double, being added 8 million plus 8 million from euros to the aid package. The goal is to regain the finances of producers who suffered losses of 30%, in corn, apple and with cattle, due to the blue tongue.
The minister also announced that Forest planwhich will cost thousands of euros to the state (“all of it recoverable,” he says), will be ready and will be delivered next week.
