Following a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Brandenburg on January 10, animal disease experts in Germany are searching for the source. In the meantime, the United Kingdom has banned imports of German meat and dairy.
Animal disease researchers in Brandenburg are searching for the source of an FMD outbreak after three water buffalo became sick on Friday morning, marking the first reported case of the disease in Germany for almost 40 years.
Foot-and-mouth is a disease affecting a group of animals called cloven-hoofed ruminants, which includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, sheep and goats and other cloven-hooved animals such as pigs.
While FMD cannot be transmitted to humans, it is highly contagious among cloven-hoofed animals. Animals that contract FMD often survive, but are weakened by the illness and may produce less milk, making them less profitable to farmers.
Recent FMD outbreaks have led to meat and dairy export bans from countries where FMD is detected and mass killings of herds where a case has been recorded.
While German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir warned of a possibly “dramatic situation”, local authorities in Brandenburg said on January 15 that there was “no evidence of further cases and therefore no spread of FMD".
While the outbreak seems to have been contained and Özdemir reassured that researchers continue to work “day and night to determine whether there are any further cases", other countries are taking precautions.
Neighbouring Poland has ramped up controls for imported German livestock, while the UK, South Korea and Mexico banned German meat and dairy imports this week.
So far, the EU Commission has decided not to follow suit. Under EU law, export restrictions are only placed on meat and dairy from the region surrounding an FMD outbreak.
Germany has self-imposed a 10-kilometre quarantine area surrounding the Brandenburg farm where the outbreak was recorded.
“The Commission has not expanded the quarantine area imposed in Brandenburg. Meat and dairy products which are produced outside the quarantine area can still be sold in the EU,” Özdemir explained.
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