Central European countries cull thousands of animals amid foot-and-mouth disease outbreak

Authorities in several countries in Central Europe are working to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among cattle populations that has caused widespread border closures and required the killing of thousands of animals.

The outbreak was first detected on a cattle farm in northwestern Hungary in early March, and animals on three farms in neighboring Slovakia tested positive for the highly transmissible virus two weeks later.

Since then, animals from an additional three farms in Hungary and another three in Slovakia have tested positive for the virus, the first outbreak of the disease in either country in more than half a century.

“Everything is completely upside down” in the area as farmers fear for their own herds and transportation is disrupted by border closures, said Sándor Szoboszlai, a local entrepreneur and hunter in the Hungarian town of Levél where nearly 3,000 cattle had to be culled after the disease was discovered on a farm.

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“We didn’t even think such a thing could happen. Who could count on that? Nobody,” he said. “There are big farms in the area, but I don’t think it was the fault of the animal owners, that’s for sure. The wind blew it here.”

Foot-and-mouth disease primarily affects cloven-hooved animals like cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and deer, and results in fevers and blisters in the mouth and hooves. The virus spreads through contact between animals, or on surfaces like clothing, skin and vehicles, or on the wind. It poses little danger to humans.

On Friday, authorities in Hungary continued to conduct operations aimed at stopping the spread of the disease and disinfecting affected farms and vehicles in the area. Mats doused in a powerful disinfectant were placed at the entrances and exits of towns and villages across the region to eliminate virus molecules that may cling to tires — though many of those mats quickly went dry and were swept partially off the road by passing vehicles.

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This week, the Slovakian government, citing insufficient containment measures by Hungary, closed 16 of their common borders and one with Austria, all of them lesser-trafficked crossings so authorities can focus on conducting border checks at the major ones. Last week, Austria — where there have been no reported cases — closed 23 of its border crossings with Hungary and Slovakia.

Authorities in the Czech Republic, relatively distant from the Hungarian and Slovakian farms where the disease has been detected, have introduced disinfection measures at all the five border crossings used by freight trucks entering the country.

Jiri Cerny, associate professor at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, said the most significant risk of transmission is “through contaminated human objects” such as “tires and cars, on the soles of shoes, and through contaminated food.” The Czech Agriculture Minister, Marek Výborný, has said the restrictions could be lifted 30 days after the last farm animal infected with foot-and-mouth disease has been culled in Slovakia.

No new infections have been discovered in Hungary this week, and the cleanup of the last infected farms will likely be completed on Saturday, István Nagy, Hungary’s agricultural minister said on Friday.

Earlier this week, a Hungarian official said in a news conference that the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak may have been caused by “an artificially produced virus.”

Without citing specific evidence to back his claims, Gergely Gulyás, chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, said it couldn’t be ruled out that the disease had been released in Hungary as a “biological attack,” adding that the suspicion was based on verbal statements from a laboratory in a foreign country that had begun initial analysis of viral samples.

Hungary’s government has promised to institute a loan payment moratorium for affected farmers, and to help compensate them for the loss of their animals and assist in developing measures on farms to prevent future outbreaks.

Szoboszlai, the hunter in Levél, choked up when speaking about the local farmer who had to cull his entire herd when the virus appeared, saying the situation was “terrible.”

“I feel so sorry for him, because this is his life’s work,” he said. “It will be very difficult to start over.”