"We will submit all the information to the Ministry of the Interior and on Monday we will decide if a state of emergency should be declared in the entire country also," the minister told "Lrytas.lt" after a meeting of the Lithuanian Emergency Response Committee today.
According to the minister, now the most important task is to liquidate African swine fever in the said farm complex.
Currently, pigs are being killed within a three-kilometer radius around the farm, about 40 kilometers from the Latvian border.
Head of the Lithuanian Food and Veterinary Service Jonas Milius said he was mostly concerned about the possibility that the disease could continue spreading further.
"On July 22, African swine fever was confirmed on another two farms and one slaughterhouse, we have found the carcasses and we have destroyed them. Tests of samples from pigs taken to other farms are continuing and, of course, we are very concerned," Milius said.
Latvia and Estonia have already banned pork import from Lithuania.
"Idavang" pig breeding complex is a state-owned farm that supplies live piglets to other farms belonging to the same company, as well as to individual pig farmers.
The confirmation of African swine fever in Lithuania has raised great public concern as the "Idavang" complex was considered an exemplary site in terms of bio-safety.
