FMD Europe: Preventive culling of 10,000 pigs in Hungary
A swine farm with almost 10,000 pigs in Hungary has been emptied because it was too close to a cattle farm where Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) was detected last week.
That particular outbreak occurred on a dairy farm in Rábapordány, a site with 875 animals on-site, on April 17. At a meeting for the Animal Health and Welfare committee, the Hungarian authorities shared that a neighbouring holding with 9,888 pigs was also emptied.
Over 26,000 animals culled
All in all, that brings the tally of culled and died animals in the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks in Central Europe at 26,704. Apart from the pigs, in total 16,802 cows had to be culled as well as 14 water buffaloes.In total, 12 farms in Central Europe were directly infected over the last 4 months by FMD virus – a tally which includes the one-off outbreak in water buffaloes near Berlin in Germany in January. The other 11 outbreaks occurred on cattle farms in an area at the border of Slovakia (6 farms) and Hungary (5 farms), in March and April.
According to data by the Word Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) – and data shared at the EU committee meeting, direct infections led Slovakia to cull 7,490 head of cattle and Hungary 8,466 head of cattle. In Hungary, 2 additional cattle farms also were preventively emptied because of contact reasons (539 and 307 cows).
The largest of the 12 infected farms was located in Slovakia near the village of Plavecký Štvrtok. On March 30, a farm with 3,521 head of cattle was found infected. In Hungary, there were 2 farms with over 2,500 head of cattle. In total 6 of the 12 infected premises had more than 1,000 animals on-site.
Up until this week, Slovakia tested for FMD at 924 farms, and also over 400 wild animals have been tested. In Hungary, 1,565 farms were tested as well as 1,016 wild animals. In nearby Austria, a plan is also being rolled out to test farms for FMD. The closer a farm is located to the border with Slovakia and Hungary, the more intensive this farm is monitored. So far all farms in Austria tested negative for FMD.
Outbreak in Germany was unrelated
It appears to have been coincidence that after a long time without FMD infections, FMD emerged on 2 different locations in Europe (Germany and Hungary/Slovakia). The outbreaks do not appear to be related.Even though FMD can occur in all cloven-hoofed animals, the virus has not emerged in sheep, goat or pig farms. Nevertheless, indirect effects in terms of preventive culling, border closures as well as transport bans have also affected those animal industries.
