Germany's First Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak in 40 Years

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.devdiscourse.com/article...ak-in-40-years

Germany's First Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak in 40 Years
Germany has experienced its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 40 years, affecting water buffalo near Berlin. Local authorities have euthanized the animals and established exclusion and monitoring zones. Investigations are ongoing, but no national or international measures are planned.
Devdiscourse News Desk | Berlin | Updated: 10-01-2025 17:27 IST | Created: 10-01-2025 17:27 IST

Germany has confirmed its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly four decades. The outbreak, occurring among a herd of water buffalo near Berlin, poses a significant challenge for local agriculture...

[Mary Wilson]

Published on 10 January 2025

WOAH acknowledges Germany’s rapid official notification of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) marking the disease’s first occurrence in the country since 1988. While the FMD virus is not considered a public health problem, it’s crucial for animal health due to its easy transmission and the significant economic impact it can have.

Germany has already been putting containment measures in place. ...

https://www.woah.org/en/statement-on-recent-foot-and-mouth-disease-fmd-outbreak-in-germany/

_______________

EVENT 6177
On-goingGermany - Foot and mouth disease virus (Inf. with)

Causal agent. - Foot and mouth disease virus
Genotype/ Serotype/ Subtype. - Pending
Animal type. - TERRESTRIAL
Disease category. - Listed disease
Reason for notification. - Recurrence of an eradicated disease
Event occurs in. - A zone/compartment
Event start date.m. - 2025/01/09
Event confirmation date. - 2025/01/10
Event end date. - -
Date of last occurrence. - 1988/01/31

https://wahis.woah.org/#/in-event/6177/dashboard

[Mary Wilson]

Germany reports foot-and-mouth disease in water buffalo

Issued on: 10/01/2025 - 18:27Modified: 10/01/2025 - 18:23

...The cases in the eastern state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, were confirmed by the federal government's Institute for Animal Health.

The outbreak affected a group of 14 animals, three of which had died, Brandenburg's environment ministry said.

The local district had ordered the rest of the herd to be culled to contain the potential spread of the virus, the ministry said. ...

The state of Brandenburg prohibited the movement of "transport of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and camelids" for 72 hours while checks were carried out.

The transport ban would also apply to "carcasses or parts of these animals and manure", the ministry said, with the order coming into force on Saturday. ...

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250110-germany-reports-foot-and-mouth-disease-in-water-buffalo

[Pathfinder]

Translation Google

01/22/2025— Expertise

5 min
Animal health and welfare

Case of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany: ANSES Animal Health Laboratory fully mobilized

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Cases of foot-and-mouth disease were detected in an Asian buffalo farm in Germany on 10 January. This is the first time since 1988 in Germany and since 2011 in the European Union. Although no other cases have been detected to date, ANSES, through its Animal Health Laboratory, is fully mobilised on the subject to prevent the spread of the disease. What is its role and what are its missions?

Three cases of foot-and-mouth disease have been detected in an Asian buffalo farm in Germany, leading to the preventive culling of the herd of 14 animals. Highly contagious, foot-and-mouth disease has potentially considerable socio-economic repercussions. However, it is not transmissible to humans and does not pose a risk to public health.

Following the detection of these cases, the ANSES Animal Health Laboratory, as the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for this disease , was contacted by the German National Reference Laboratory (NRL) to confirm these contaminations.

As part of this LRUE mandate, one of whose missions is to guarantee the reliability of the analyses carried out by all the NRLs in the network that it manages at European level, the Animal Health Laboratory thus carried out the analysis of the samples taken from the infected buffaloes. It thus confirmed the infection and the identity of the viral strain. It also transmitted to the German NRL and the European laboratories in its network the real-time RT-PCR protocol that it developed.

At the same time, the Animal Health Laboratory is currently conducting vaccine concordance tests to assess the efficacy of currently available vaccines on the virus strain detected in Germany. Although preventive vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease has been banned in Europe since 1991, it can be considered in a specific manner, for example to contain the spread of the disease.

Increased surveillance to prevent the spread of the disease, particularly in France

To prevent the possible spread of foot-and-mouth disease, some countries, such as the United Kingdom, South Korea and Mexico, have taken measures to ban the import of meat from Germany. This is not the case for France. However, increased surveillance is in place at the European level to prevent the spread of the virus. In France, the Animal Health Laboratory, in conjunction with the Directorate General for Food (DGAL), conducted a serological analysis campaign on pigs imported from Germany in December to ensure that there were no cases of contamination. Even if the risk of a spread is considered " high ", according to Labib Bakkali Kassimi , virologist and head of the LRUE for foot-and-mouth disease, " it is unlikely that contamination will be detected on specimens imported into France, since the incubation period of the virus varies between two and fourteen days and we are now beyond that. "

Furthermore, the LRUE, in contact with the LNRs of all European countries, has made available to them the real-time RT-PCR protocol it developed in order to remove any doubt about any suspected cases.

Developing new methods and procedures for diagnosing foot-and-mouth disease

Although the detection of cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany is a first in the European Union since 2011, the ANSES Animal Health Laboratory works daily to implement new and increasingly efficient means to support the diagnostic process in the event of new outbreaks of the disease.

To this end, the Laboratory has recently developed a new protocol to simplify the sending of contaminated specimens, allowing both a reduction in costs and biological risks related to transport. In addition, it is currently working on the development of a new method for diagnosing the disease that would save time in the diagnostic process, currently subject to laboratory analysis.

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The animal health laboratory's reference mandates on foot-and-mouth disease:

• National Reference Laboratory (NRL) since 2009
• Reference laboratory of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WHOA) since 2015
• Reference centre for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since 2018
• European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) since 2019 (in consortium with Sciensano, Belgium)

https://www.anses.fr/fr/content/cas-de-fievre-aphteuse-en-Allemagne-le-Laboratoire-de-sante-animale-de-l-Anses-pleinement-mobilise

[sharon sanders]

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