SALEM, Ohio — Foot-and-mouth disease has now been discovered in three European countries this year, prompting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to issue additional import restrictions.
The World Organization for Animal Health announced on March 6 the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle in Hungary, on a farm near the border with Slovakia. More than 1,300 cattle were culled to prevent the spread of the disease. Foot and mouth disease was last detected in Hungary in 1973.
Since then, Slovakia confirmed a foot-and-mouth disease detection in five cattle herds, and Hungary confirmed additional detections, including one near the Hungary-Austria border, according to USDA-APHIS. This prompted the USDA on March 27 to issue import restrictions on live ruminants, swine and other animals from Austria, although there have been no FMD detections there. Import restrictions on Hungary and Slovakia were already in place.
These detections come less than two months after the virus was found in a herd of water buffalo in Germany on Jan. 10. Hungary and Germany do not share a border. This was the first outbreak in Germany since 1988. The source of the infection remains unclear.
Foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus that infects cloven-hoofed animals. FMD is characterised by fever and blister-like sores on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats and between the hooves. The disease causes severe production losses, and while the majority of affected animals recover, the disease often leaves them weakened and debilitated, according to the WOAH.
The 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak in the United Kingdom saw more than 6 million sheep and cows killed to halt the spread of the disease.
