Authorities in Hungary have said that foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been “successfully contained” in the country.
Hungary confirmed its first case of foot-and-mouth disease in over 50 years in early March. Four outbreaks on different farms followed, with the latest outbreak occurring in mid-April.
All five outbreaks occurred in the county of Gyor-Moson-Sopron, which borders both Austria and Slovakia.
On Friday (June 6), the country’s National Food Chain Safety Office said that the disease has been successfully contained, and both the EU and Hungary’s own authorities had lifted all restrictions in relation to the disease.
The animal health authority in Hungary is seeking to regain official FMD-free status. The country will have to wait until July 20 to apply to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) for this status.
Farmers in Hungary are being asked to continue to comply with basic biosecurity measures related to foot-and-mouth disease.
The last FMD-related restricted zone was lifted on Friday, and therefore trade with other EU countries can resume, according to the National Food Chain Safety Office. Hungary is negotiating with non-EU countries to facilitate trade outside of the bloc.
The five outbreaks, between them, affected over 19,000 animals. Testing was carried out on 2,900 farms, with no further outbreaks confirmed.
The National Food Chain Safety Office said that, between animals of all susceptible species, both wild and domestic, it carried out over 260,000 tests. These tests will continue in the coming months, the authority said.
Foot-and-mouth in Slovakia
Several outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease were also confirmed in neighboring Slovakia over the same period. Like in Hungary, the situation seems to be improving.
There have been six outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Slovakia, resulting in the government there declaring an official state of emergency in late March, and bringing in members of the defence forces to aid in disease containment and disinfection measures.
However, while the country has not formally announced that it has contained the foot-and-mouth disease, the state of emergency has since been rescinded. Measures regarding the restriction zones around impacted farms were also relaxed.
Border crossings in Hungary have been reopened, and the police and fire services in Slovakia are no longer being deployed to inspect and disinfect vehicles, the country’s ministry of the interior said.
The police will continue to carry out random checks to ensure compliance with biosecurity measures regulating entry onto farms.
