Foot-and-mouth disease contained in Hungary, farm minister says

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary has successfully contained an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, leading to the lifting of European Union restrictions, the country’s farm minister Istvan Nagy told local news site Index.hu in an interview published on Friday.

Hungary reported its first case of foot-and-mouth disease for over 50 years in March, leading to infections in five farms near its border with Slovakia and Austria and triggering border closures and the mass slaughter of cattle.

“There hasn’t been a single new outbreak on the farms for over a month and a half. Disinfection work is ongoing, cleaning is happening at full speed, we’re preparing for repopulation at all the sites … the virus is gone,” Nagy said.

The farm minister also said that the European Union was lifting restrictions introduced after the outbreak.

The disease, which poses no danger to humans, mostly affects cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals like swine, sheep and goats, causing fever and mouth blisters. Outbreaks often lead to trade restrictions and livestock culls.

Authorities were still investigating the origins of the outbreak and testing several theories, Nagy said. He reiterated that terrorism had not been ruled out.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff in May suggested a “biological attack” as a possible source of the outbreak, without giving further details.

Restrictions have also been eased in Slovakia since May as the country has not seen any fresh outbreaks in recent months.

In the Czech Republic, where no cases were reported, remaining measures to prevent the spread across its borders were due to end on Friday.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves in Budapest and Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)