First foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Germany for 35 years

A 72-hour ban on transporting cows, pigs, sheep, goats and other animals such as camels and llamas in Brandenburg went into force on Saturday and Berlin’s two zoos also closed.

It came after authorities in Brandenburg state, which surrounds Berlin, said on Friday that a farmer found three of a 14-strong herd of water buffalo dead in Hoenow, just outside the city limits. Germany’s national animal health institute confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease had been detected in samples from one animal, and the rest of the herd was slaughtered. It wasn’t clear how the animals were infected.

Authorities said that around 200 pigs at a farm in Ahrensfelde, near where the outbreak was detected, would be slaughtered as a precaution.

The highly contagious viral disease affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs and sheep, including those in zoos. There are tight international regulations in place to stop its transmission. Whilst the disease doesn’t affect humans they can carry it and infect animals.

Death rates are typically low, but the disease can make animals ill with fever, decreased appetite, excessive drooling, blisters and other symptoms.

In the UK in 2001 and outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease led the authorities to kill around six million livestock on infected farms and farms next to them, costing billions of euros. At the time, some farmers said the response was too extreme.

The virus spreads easily through contact and airborne transmission and can quickly infect entire herds. People can also spread the disease though things like farming equipment, shoes, clothing and vehicle tyres that have come into contact with the virus.

The last outbreak in Germany was in 1988 and the last in Europe in 2011, according to Germany’s animal health institute.