EU Approves €73 Million for Italian Farmers Hit by Avian Flu and ASF

European Union has approved €73 million from the agricultural reserve to compensate Italian farmers affected by previous outbreaks of avian influenza and African swine fever.

The European Commission announced the measure on 25 September 2026, with the funding designed to compensate farmers for losses associated with disease-control and prevention measures.

€61 million for poultry and eggs

Of the total:

• €61 million will support poultry and egg farmers affected by avian-influenza outbreaks between September 2022 and March 2025.

• €12.5 million will support pig-meat farmers affected by ASF between November 2024 and April 2025.

Payments are required to reach farmers by the end of May 2027.

The measure covers losses resulting from disease-control interventions, rather than representing a direct payment for ordinary production costs.

Why compensation is strategically important

Animal-disease control often requires economically disruptive measures:

Movement restrictions → quarantine → depopulation/culling → cleaning → production interruption → market disruption

Without an effective compensation mechanism, producers may face significant financial losses while being required to cooperate with measures designed to protect the wider livestock sector. Compensation therefore becomes part of the disease-control infrastructure.

Wider European implications

Italy’s allocation illustrates the increasing economic scale of animal-disease management in Europe. ASF and avian influenza affect not only individual farms but also:

• Slaughterhouses

• Feed suppliers

• Hatcheries

• Processors

• Exporters

• Logistics companies

• Regional livestock markets

Public financial support therefore serves as a mechanism to maintain sector resilience while disease-control measures are implemented.

Animal-health industry view

The development strengthens the case for prevention because the economic cost of disease extends well beyond veterinary treatment. Investment in:

Vaccination where appropriate + biosecurity + diagnostics + surveillance + traceability

can potentially reduce the probability, duration or geographical extent of costly disease events.

The EU’s agricultural-reserve mechanism also demonstrates that animal health is increasingly being treated as an agricultural-risk-management issue, not solely as a veterinary issue.