Sheep and goat farmers will receive new help

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At the expense of national funds, the Ministry of Agriculture created the possibility of funding to cover the genotyping costs of scrapie affecting sheep and goats. The reason for this is that the European Union co-financed resource available in previous years will cease to exist in 2024. The goal, in line with epidemiological control, is to filter out individuals susceptible to scrapie, so that the disease cannot spread in sheep and goat herds. Based on the support program with a HUF 65 million budget, the sheep or goat breeder is eligible for support whose 2024 cost of scrapie genotyping performed on his livestock has been advanced by the Hungarian Sheep and Goat Breeders’ Association.

The basis of the support is the number of samples taken from the animal keeper’s livestock for the genotyping test of scrapie, the amount can be no more than HUF 6,500 per sample

Affected livestock keepers can submit their support claims to the Association of Hungarian Sheep and Goat Breeders between October 15 and 31, 2024, which, acting on behalf of the livestock keepers, submits the aggregated support claim to the Hungarian Treasury. The Treasury will decide on the amount of support that can be determined for individual livestock owners by December 31, 2024 at the latest. It is important that no subsidy is paid directly to the animal keeper. At the same time, in the case of a positive assessment of the support request, the animal keeper does not have to pay the fee for the animal health service already performed in 2024.

AM