Hrnčířová: EU legislation has clear rules for the culling of animals in foot-and-mouth disease zones

Brussels – The legislation of the European Union (EU) has had clear rules for decades on how to proceed with the culling of livestock in regions affected by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and also has compensation schemes for affected farmers. This was stated on Friday by the European Commission (EC) spokesperson for health, Eva Hrnčířová, to the TASR correspondent in Brussels.

According to her, the Commission registers that representatives of the Slovak government indicated that due to EU legislation, farmers in Slovakia have to kill even healthy animals in the area affected by FMD. In response to the TASR’s question on whether EU legislation requires such a step in case of diseases like foot-and-mouth disease, Hrnčířová clarified that Slovak farmers do not have to cull animals due to Brussels legislation, but because FMD is an extremely contagious disease.

“Unfortunately, culling animals on affected farms is the only way to prevent foot-and-mouth disease from spreading throughout Slovakia or to other European countries,” she explained.

She reminded that this disease is not risky for humans, but it is very dangerous for livestock farms. In Slovakia, according to her, it involves farms quite close to each other in the affected zone. A three-kilometer safety perimeter needs to be established around the affected farms, and all animals within it need to be culled. FMD has a very long incubation period, and symptoms in animals that currently look healthy may appear after up to three weeks. If this happened, a new outbreak of the disease would have far-reaching consequences compared to the measures that need to be implemented quickly now to prevent further spread of the infection.

“Thanks to the measures we have in European legislation, we have not had foot-and-mouth disease in the EU for decades, although it is a disease that occurs elsewhere in the world,” she pointed out. She added that thanks to these measures, FMD was eliminated in Germany in January.

Hrnčířová confirmed that the EU helps member countries affected by such diseases and will also help Slovakia. “The EU will financially assist Slovak farmers, there will be joint funding of compensation together with Slovakia, depending on the GDP of the given country, whether it will be 20 or 30 percent,” conveyed the EC spokesperson. (March 28)

“Thanks to the measures we have in European legislation, we have not had foot-and-mouth disease in the EU for decades, although it is a disease that occurs elsewhere in the world.” Eva Hrnčířová