UK veterinarians concerned by FMD outbreak in Central Europe

UK veterinary experts are worried about the growing foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Hungary. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Gareth Hately, president of the Scottish branch of the British Veterinary Association, expressed concern over the development of the outbreak in Central Europe, reminding listeners of the devastating impact of the disease in the UK in 2001. Millions of animals were culled, and the final cost for the country was £5 billion. Hately also found disturbing speculations that the outbreak in Hungary may be the product of a biological attack, a theory recently advanced by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas. According to him, infections may be linked to the Middle East because the identified serotype of the virus comes from that region. However, the area is too big, and there are too many animal movements to pinpoint an exact origin for the current outbreak. Hately concluded his intervention by approving the government ban on meat and dairy products from the EU because the disease can also be spread by such items.
In Hungary, thousands of cattle have already been killed in a desperate attempt to contain the virus, discovered last month on a farm in the northwest of the country. The cause of the outbreak is still unknown, with the Hungarian government recently speculating that it could be provoked by “an artificially engineered virus.” According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, Austria and Slovakia have reacted to the outbreak by closing dozens of border crossings with Hungary.