State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service spends half its budget on rabies

103 million hryvnia were allocated from the state budget for 2013 to combat infectious diseases of animals, chairman of the state veterinary and phytosanitary service Volodymyr Horzheyev told a press conference, ForUm correspondent reports.

However, according to him, these funds are not enough.

"The financing of anti-epizootic measures for 2013 amounts to 103 million UAH. From this figure, we will spend a certain amount on the maintenance of veterinary and quarantine officers and payment to the Office International des Epizooties, and we will have 88-90 million UAH, as in 2012. This is not enough for the veterinary medicine sphere with dozens of diseases," Horzheyev noted.

According to the chairman of the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service, this is only 30-40% of the actual funding.

"We spend almost 50% on the issue of rabies. The rest of money is spent on leukemia, tuberculosis and Newcastle disease," Horzheyev said.