The Netherlands confirmed its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease making today it the second country in mainland Europe to be hit by the highly-contagious virus after France. In Britain the number of confirmed cases now stands at 430.
The virus was detected in four cows on a Olst farm in the eastern Netherlands, prompting authorities to slaughter all animals at the farm.
The Netherlands had banned all livestock movement yesterday after discovering suspected cases of the disease in several goats on another eastern farm, in Oene.
Following the confirmation German authorities increased controls to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease from the farms which lie about 50 kilometres from the German border in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Regional German authorities immediately moved to ban Dutch animal and meat imports and discourage visits to the affected zone.
The Dutch agriculture ministry said it was treating that outbreak at Olst as a second case of foot-and-mouth although test results had yet to confirm the infection.
The Olst farm had 60 cows and 20 sheep. It had not imported or exported any animals this year, said the agriculture ministry.
This morning the EU Commission's veterinary experts reacted by imposing an embargo on exports of live animals and untreated meat and dairy products from the Netherlands.
"The Netherlands has confirmed the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in cattle . . . but we are still confident the disease can be contained," said EC spokeswoman Ms Beate Gminder.
The outbreak of foot-and-mouth is the first in the Netherlands since 1984.
Only one other outbreak had been reported elsewhere in continental Europe, at a farm in northwest France.
Britain's foot-and-mouth outbreak today passed the 400 mark to reach a total of 430 confirmed cases of the livestock virus, the British ministry of agriculture said. There has only been one confirmed outbreak in Northern Ireland.
AFP