Laboratory tests have confirmed the outbreak at the cattle farm in Rabapordany, Nagy said. Protection and surveillance zones have been established around the farm and preparations are being made to cull around 600 head, he added.

No New Foot-and-Mouth Outbreaks - Minister Confirms

No new outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have been detected; efforts to contain the outbreak continue, Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy said after a meeting of an operative corps for animal health in Mosonmagyaróvár (NW Hungary).

Destruction of the animals has been completed at two of the affected farms and it is still in progress at the other two, the minister said.


Efforts to contain FMD successful - minister

Measures to contain the spread of foot-and-mouth disease have been successful and no new outbreaks have been reported, Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy said at a press briefing in Mosonmagyarovar (NW Hungary) on Tuesday.

Speaking after a meeting of the operative corps for animal health, Nagy said the livestock at two of the four farms where FMD was detected had been destroyed. Culling will start at the other two farms on Tuesday and finish, hopefully, by the weekend, he added.

He said 60,000 blood tests had been conducted at 749 farms and all had been negative for FMD.

Work is underway to determine how the virus entered Hungary, he added.

Kristof Gal, a spokesman for the National Police Headquarters (ORFK), said the closure of a number of crossings along the border with Austria meant long waits at the crossings that remained open. He advised travellers to check the police.hu website for the latest information on border crossings with Austria and Slovakia.


Earlier: Foot-and-Mouth Disease Detected in Hungary 

Foot-and-mouth disease has been detected at a cattle farm in Kisbajcs, in the west of the country, the chief veterinarian said at a press conference.

Szabolcs Pasztor said the disease had last been detected in Hungary in 1973.

A protection zone has been established around the farm, he added.

New case of foot-and-mouth disease detected (adds Slovakia)

The first physical symptoms appeared on Tuesday in the 3,000-head cattle herd. The presence of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed on Wednesday morning.

Chief veterinarian Szabolcs Pasztor has taken several immediate measures, including ordering the destruction of the entire herd, which will commence within days, and investigating possible contact farms.

Foot-and-mouth disease was detected at a cattle farm in Kisbajcs, in the west of the country early in March. Before that, the disease had last been detected in Hungary in 1973.

Slovakia’s ministry of transport announced Wednesday afternoon that because of the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, all small border crossings on the Slovak-Hungarian border will be closed, and disinfection gates will be set up at large border crossings.

The Slovak government decided on Tuesday to approve the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency because of the occurrence of cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the south of the country.

Earlier: 

Gulyas: Foot-and-mouth disease appears to be contained

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Hungary appears to be contained at the moment, Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister's Office, said at a weekly press briefing on Thursday.

Gulyas said the last of the infected animals would be destroyed by Thursday.

Fielding questions, he said inspections were underway but no further infections had been discovered, suggesting a quick response had been effective.

All of the infected animals are being destroyed and restrictions have been placed on animals in a 10km zone around the area of the outbreak, he added.

He said that the European Union had issued a certificate requiring other member states to accept imports from Hungary.

Fifteen non-EU countries have temporarily banned imports of Hungarian meat products, he added.


Orban: Further spread of foot-and-mouth disease must be blocked

Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday appealed to livestock owners to take heed of the instructions of the authorities on how to prevent the further spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

Infected herds must be culled and the infection localised, Orban said in a video uploaded to Facebook in which he stood in front of the livestock farm on the outskirts of Kisbajcs in Gyor-Moson-Sopron county, in western Hungary, where the virus was identified.

Livestock owners have access to specialists and funding, and Istvan Nagy, the agriculture minister, is directing protection efforts, the prime minister noted.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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