Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Central Europe: countries close borders to contain the virus
Kyiv • UNN
Hungary and Slovakia are suffering from foot-and-mouth disease, which has led to the closure of borders with neighboring countries. Authorities are trying to contain the spread of the disease among livestock.
In Central European countries, the fight against the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among cattle continues, which led to the mass destruction of animals and the closure of borders to contain the spread of the virus.
This is reported by Independent, writes UNN.
Details
According to the media, the first infection was recorded in early March on a Hungarian cattle farm. Two weeks later, the virus spread to farms in neighboring Slovakia, the first outbreak of the disease in both countries in the last 50 years.
Authorities are working to contain the spread of the disease. Foot and mouth disease primarily affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and deer, and leads to fever and blisters in the mouth and on the hooves. The virus spreads through contact between animals, on surfaces such as clothing, skin and vehicles, or by wind. It poses a minor hazard to humans.
On Friday, Hungarian authorities continued to conduct operations aimed at stopping the spread of the disease and disinfecting affected farms and vehicles in the region. At the entrances and exits of towns and villages throughout the region, mats soaked in a powerful disinfectant were placed to destroy virus molecules that could stick to tires - although many of these mats quickly dried out and were partially swept off the road by passing vehicles.
This week, the Slovak government, citing insufficient containment measures by Hungary, closed 16 joint borders and one border with Austria, all of which are less busy so that authorities can focus on conducting border checks at major border crossing points.
Last week, Austria, where no cases were recorded, closed 23 border crossing points with Hungary and Slovakia. The authorities of the Czech Republic, relatively distant from the Hungarian and Slovak farms where the disease was detected, introduced disinfection measures at all five border crossings used by trucks entering the country.
Jiří Černý, associate professor at the Czech University of Natural Sciences in Prague, said that the most significant risk of infection is "through contaminated human objects" such as "tires and cars, shoe soles, and through contaminated food."
Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný said that restrictions could be lifted 30 days after the last farm animal infected with foot-and-mouth disease is slaughtered in Slovakia.
No new cases of the disease have been detected in Hungary this week, and the cleaning of the last infected farms is likely to be completed on Saturday.
Let us remind you
Earlier, UNN reported that an investigation into the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was launched in Hungary, suspecting the unnatural origin of the virus.
