NVWA investigates potential foot-and-mouth disease risk after German infections

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has launched an investigation following the discovery of three water buffaloes infected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Hönow, Germany, just northeast of Berlin. A preliminary risk analysis indicates that no animals have been directly transferred from the affected area to the Netherlands in the past six weeks. However, there may have been “indirect imports,” according to Dutch Minister of Agriculture Femke Wiersma in a letter to parliament.

FMD is a highly contagious disease that causes blisters and fever in cows, sheep, pigs, and other cloven-hoofed animals. Approximately 1 to 2 percent of infected animals die from the disease. In 2001, Europe experienced a severe FMD epidemic, leading to the culling of hundreds of thousands of animals in the Netherlands as a preventive measure.

The FMD cases at a German farm, where a total of 14 water buffaloes were infected, have been described by Wiersma as "surprising and very disappointing." The last reported case of FMD in an EU member state occurred in 2007. “I was shocked by this news and I am very concerned about the risk of an outbreak in the Netherlands,” Wiersma wrote.

If any animals or products from the German state of Brandenburg, where the outbreak occurred, have entered the Netherlands through indirect imports, “these businesses in the Netherlands will be blocked and further investigated,” Wiersma added.