Van Drie > News > News items

News items

Foot-and-mouth disease in Germany

News item

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was confirmed in the German state of Brandenburg on 10 January. This virus was found at a farm in Hönow, located northwest of Berlin, where 14 water buffaloes were kept. Over 3,000 calves have been transported to the Netherlands from this state since 1 December 2024 and placed at 125 veal calf husbandries. In this post, we share links to relevant websites where you can find up-to-date information. We emphasise that there is no outbreak in the Netherlands and that all measures are taken as a precautionary measure

Strict hygiene measures
The urgent advice to anyone in direct or indirect contact with FMD-susceptible animals is to take strict hygiene measures to minimise the risk of virus introduction and spread. These include i.e. using company clothing when entering the farm, no unnecessary transport movements across the premises, double C&D (Cleaning & Disinfection) of trucks leaving the farm yard and suspend all unnecessary visits and checks.

LVVN ministry 
Saturday evening 11 January, new precautionary measures were announced by the government following the FMD outbreak in Germany. The main measures include a calf discharge ban and a visitor ban. For more information, see the LVVN (Ministerie van Landbouw, Visserij, Voedselzekerheid en Natuur - Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature) website. (NL)

Stichting Kwaliteitsgarantie Vleeskalveren (SKV)
SKV was founded to promote the quality of veal and to guarantee that veal is produced without the use of undesirable growth-promoting agents (https://skv.info/?lang=en). The SKV imposed a set-up and discharge ban for veal calves on Saturday evening 11 January as a precautionary measure, with the exception of discharge for slaughter. You can read more about this on the SKV website. (NL)

Control of contact farms
On Sunday 12 January, the NVWA started clinical inspections and sampling of calves transported from Brandenburg. The results of this monitoring are expected by the end of this week.

FMD
You can find more information on FMD, such as symptoms and preventive measures, on the websites of Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) and the Animal Health Service (Royal GD).

Suspicion?
Have animals, feed, or other materials been brought onto your farm from the Brandenburg region after 1 December 2024, or do you suspect that animals on your farm have symptoms that may indicate FMD? Report this immediately to the NVWA's national contact point for animal disease control. Information on reporting animal diseases with reference to the national telephone hotline (045) 546 31 88 can be found at this website of the NVWA. (NL)

Questions?

Do you have any questions or comments about this article? We would like to hear from you! Ask your question via our contact form.

Load more messages