Between 30% and 40% of the livestock officially registered in Bulgaria may exist only on paper, according to caretaker Agriculture Minister Ivan Hristanov, who said recent inspections have revealed a serious gap between declared and actually present animals.

In a post on social media, Hristanov explained that checks carried out by inspectors from the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency show that a significant share of registered animals cannot be physically found on farms. According to him, these are so-called ?virtual animals? used to obtain subsidies and support payments without real livestock behind them.

More than 400 cattle farms have already been inspected. Out of 25,000 animals listed in the system, only 16,000 were actually present during the checks. This means that around 9,000 cattle, or approximately 36%, were missing.

The situation is similar in farms raising small ruminants such as sheep and goats. Inspectors checked 33,000 animals in that category, but found only 23,000. Around 10,000 were missing, representing close to 30% of the registered number.

?These are effectively virtual animals used to claim subsidies,? Hristanov stated, describing the practice as part of wider fraud schemes in the agricultural sector.

He argued that such abuses have a direct effect on consumers as well. ?On the one hand, we have little on our tables and what we do have is expensive; on the other, some people are pocketing the money,? the minister said.

According to him, false registrations have been made possible partly because of problems in the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency's livestock registration system, which has not been functioning properly.

Hristanov said the system would now be fully restored so that farmers can once again access up-to-date information on disease outbreaks, neighboring farms and the real number of animals registered in the country.

He stressed that the lack of transparency and the withholding of such information had created favorable conditions for manipulation and fraud, allowing phantom livestock to remain in the system for years.