German authorities say no more foot-and-mouth disease cases found

Hamburg | Reuters — German authorities said on Tuesday they had found no new cases of the livestock illness foot-and-mouth disease following intensive testing around the area where the first case was confirmed last week.

German authorities confirmed the country’s first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 40 years on Friday in a herd of water buffalo on the outskirts of Berlin in the Brandenburg region.

Testing of animals on farms had shown no new cases in an area of around one kilometre from the first case, the agriculture ministry in the state of Brandenburg said.

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Investigations continue and the affected region has a ban on animal transport until Wednesday, it said.

Foot-and-mouth disease causes fever and mouth blisters in cloven-hoofed ruminants such as cattle, swine, sheep and goats and in past decades needed major slaughtering campaigns to eradicate. The highly infectious disease poses no danger to humans.

Germany’s federal agriculture ministry has warned that even one case could bring exports of the country’s meat and dairy products to outside the EU to a virtual standstill.

Due to the loss of free status from foot-and-mouth disease according to the requirements of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), numerous veterinary certificates for the export of products from ruminants and pigs in particular can no longer be issued, the ministry said.

Britain on Tuesday banned imports of pork and many other meat and dairy products from Germany to try to prevent the disease spreading to Britain. Between January and October 2024, the UK imported 117,340 metric tons of pork worth 448 million pounds (C$783.9 million) from Germany.

Germany is the third largest exporter of pork to the UK with an 18 per cent market share and the second largest exporter of dairy products with a 12 per cent market share, according to Britain’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

“It means that ham, gammon and bacon as well as products like salami from Germany will not be allowed into the UK. As such we are expecting some disruption to supply,” Mandy Nevel, AHDB’s Head of Animal Health and Welfare, said.

The last cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany occurred in 1988, according to the FLI animal health research institute. The FLI said the disease occurs regularly in the Middle East and Africa, in many Asian countries and South America.

— Reporting by Michael Hogan