Cyprus-Forum.com

[tessintrnc]

I just read on the internet this reuters news report:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has banned all exports of fresh meat, live animals and milk products from Cyprus following a confirmed outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in the country, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

"Cyprus has been declared a high-risk zone, therefore all exports of livestock and products from these animals cannot be exported into the EU," Philip Tod, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, told a news conference.

The EU executive also said exports of meat, livestock and dairy products could resume from Britain, excluding livestock from the high-risk area around the county of Surrey in southern England where an FMD outbreak was detected earlier this year.

(Reporting by Darren Ennis; editing by Dale Hudson)

What sad news for Cyprus. I hope and pray that it is eradicated quickly.

Tess

[Cyprus Vending]

AS SEEN IN TODAYS CYPRUS MAIL...

The slaughter begins
By Jacqueline Theodoulou

THE EUROPEAN Commission yesterday banned the export of meat and dairy products from Cyprus as the Veterinary Services slaughtered 300 animals suspected of suffering from foot and mouth.

Although Europe’s official confirmation of the disease was yesterday still pending, Agriculture Minister Fotis Fotiou said an EU expert who arrived at the weekend considered the disease a fact.

In Brussels, a spokesman for EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said preliminary tests were positive for the O type virus. Type 0 is the most prevalent of the seven types of foot and mouth.

The EC is scheduled to meet today and decide what further measures need to be taken, while its strict instruction is that no animals, meat or meat and dairy products be exported from Cyprus and the movement of animals in the Republic is forbidden.
Officials from the Veterinary Services called on the public not to panic, saying the disease, suspected at a farm in Dromolaxia in the Larnaca district, posed no threat to public health as foot and mouth was not transmitted to humans. Nevertheless, the services destroyed milk and meat produced in Dromolaxia farms over the past few days.

They also asked residents in and surrounding Dromolaxia to co-operate in making sure the illness did not spread throughout the island by co-operating fully with the special decontamination measures in place.
The outbreak is catastrophic for livestock farmers, with the entire sector on the brink of collapse. They insist their animals are not contaminated and have cast doubt on the results of the tests.

Spyros Leventis, the head of the Sheep and Goat Farmers’ Committee, yesterday insisted the farmers be allowed to bring in their own experts to test for the disease.
“We don't have foot and mouth, none of our animals have died and there has been no scientific documentation proving our animals are infected with this illness,” he said.
The government has promised to stand by the farmers and compensate them, not just for the animals culled or lost earnings, but also to fund their efforts to rebuild their businesses. The Cabinet is set to approve the compensatory measures, ordered by President Tassos Papadopoulos, during tomorrow’s meeting.

But an out-of-schedule meeting by the House Agriculture Committee yesterday proved farmers’ concerns were not just financial.

“Two hundred children and 100 grandchildren of mine were killed this morning,” a tearful Demetris Dirris, one of two farmers whose animals were culled yesterday morning, told the committee.

“They have destroyed me; I haven’t eaten or slept for two days,” he went on. “I’m 58 and unemployed. What am I going to do now? I have been rearing and caring for these animals since I was four years old.”
When the first suspected cases were spotted two weeks ago in Dromolaxia, samples were sent to the European Lab in London for further testing. They came back negative, to the great relief of all involved.

However, as the Veterinary Services checked a further five farms near the Dromolaxia farm, more sheep showed signs of foot and mouth. In total, 23 out of the 55 sheep initially tested positive. This time, the response by the EU Lab wasn't so reassuring.

“An EU official visited the farms and warned us that if he found clinical symptoms in the animals, then it was foot and mouth,” Fotiou explained during the parliamentary meeting, adding that the official later confirmed the sheep were showing clinical symptoms.

“So we moved ahead with the cull straight away. We had no choice. It wasn't easy to do,” the minister added.

The joint decision by the EU Lab and the European Commission was clear, Fotiou said: “All sheep in that flock must be killed.”
“I visited the farm myself and I won’t forget the farmer telling me: ‘Dear Minister, I don't want money, I want the animals that I lived to bring up.’ But we had to take measures; and we will take more if it is needed.”

Fotiou admitted the government was still in no position to determine the precise dimensions of the problem and whether the disease had spread to the rest of the island.
He said the government was awaiting the results of an expert analysis on how foot and mouth arrived in Cyprus.

He warned the public against assumptions, such as that the infected animals may have been illegally transported from the occupied areas, or imported illegally from Romania or Bulgaria.

“These are all guesses, nothing has been confirmed,” Fotiou pointed out.
The minister said he was expecting the EU to order the slaughter of more animals. “How many, whether the EC will decide to cover a 3km radius surrounding Dromolaxia or a 10km radius, we will know on Tuesday [today].”
Charalambos Kakoyiannis, the head of the Veterinary Services, informed deputies that there were 15,000 animals in the three-kilometre zone and a staggering 150,000 animals in the 10km zone.

“What is happening is extremely sad, and catastrophic to the specific sector but also to the state economy,” he said.

[tessintrnc]

How do they contain something like this when the animals are allowed to roam all over the place?
I know that here in the North they are everywhere -including private gardens!
Tess

[greek.god]

Stop worrying, it's not contagious for humans. The only people that will suffer are the poor farmers. They'll just sell a plot of land for 200K and buy the new mercedes and be done with it.

[raymanuva]

greek.god. so true...