Foot-and-mouth: Hungary reports first cases in 50 years

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral infection that affects cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, including sheep and pigs. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Hungary has detected its first foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in over 50 years, at a cattle farm near the Slovak border, the national food safety agency said on Friday.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral infection that is not dangerous to humans but which affects cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, including sheep and pigs.

Symptoms include fever and blisters in the mouth and near the hoof.

In January, Germany reported FMD cases in a Berlin water buffalo farm, the first outbreak in the European Union since 2011, prompting several countries to stop German meat imports.

Hungary’s National Food Chain Safety Office said the country’s FMD case was located in Kisbajcs, a northwestern town right next to Slovakia.

“A farm with 1400 cattle showed the classic symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease in early March,” it said in a statement.

After laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the pathogen, Hungary’s chief veterinary officer ordered the farm’s closure, the culling of its stock and an epidemiological investigation.

“In order to prevent the further spread of the disease, extremely strict official measures are in place, including a ban on the movement of susceptible species and their products,” the statement added.

In a previous outbreak in Europe, more than 2000 animals were culled to control the disease in the UK after a spate of cases in 2007, according to the British government.

In 2011, hundreds of animals were culled in Bulgaria after an outbreak there.

- Agence France-Presse