Minister of Agriculture: FMD outbreak contained in Hungary

Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy said on June 6 that his country has successfully contained a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, leading the European Union to lift restrictions. Hungary reported its first case of the disease in over 50 years in March, with further infections later detected in several farms. The outbreak triggered border closures with Austria and Slovakia and the mass slaughter of cattle. In an interview with local news site Index.hu, Nagy said that no new outbreaks on the farms have been detected for over a month and a half, thanks to unrelenting disinfection work. Some farms are also preparing to repopulate their livestock. Based on these data, Nagy concluded that the outbreak is over. However, authorities are still investigating the origins of the outbreak and testing several theories, including the possibility of a terrorist act. Such a hypothesis was suggested in May by one of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s close collaborators.
According to Nagy, the European Union is lifting restrictions introduced after the outbreak, allowing the restart of animal trade with and from Hungary. Restrictions have also been eased in Slovakia since May as the country has not seen any new cases of FMD in recent weeks. In the Czech Republic, which did not report any cases, prevention measures against the spread of the disease ended on June 6.