Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus has been confirmed on a cattle farm in Kisbajcs, in Hungary, less than two months after the virus was found in water buffalo, in Germany.
Hungary’s National Food Chain Safety Authority (Nébih) announced Hungary’s first case in more than 50 years on Friday morning.
A farm with 1,400 cattle showed classic symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease at the beginning of March, before the presence of the pathogen was confirmed by the Nébih laboratory.
Dr Szabolcs Pásztor, the national chief veterinarian, immediately ordered the closure of the farm and initiated an epidemiological investigation to try and establish how the virus reached the farm.
Nébih said extremely strict official measures are being implemented, including a ban on the transport of susceptible live animal species and their products.
It said ‘the eradication of the population and the investigation of the source of the infection are in progress’. “The most important thing is that all owners of susceptible species pay special attention to complying with disease control regulations and the strict official measures imposed, and immediately report any illness in their animals to their veterinarian,” the laboratory added.
The UK imports a variety of pork products from Hungary. HMRC figures for 2024, summarised by AHDB, show the UK imported:
- 1,823 tonnes of fresh and frozen pork, up 44% on 2023.
- 48t of bacon
- 722t of sausages
- 264t of processed hams, shoulders and pieces.
While Hungary is not a major source of pigmeat imports, relative to some EU countries, Defra is likely to impose a ban on imports of animals and products of animal origin (POAO) from Hungary, as it did with Germany in January.
Defra’s implementation of the German FMD ban has come under scrutiny, following claims at an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs hearing that products from Germany continued to enter the UK for ‘at least a week’ after the ban was imposed.
FMD symptoms
FMD is a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects cloven-hoofed animals (eg, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, buffalo, wild ruminants).
The main symptoms of the disease include fever, loss of appetite, salivation and the appearance of blisters in the mouth and on the feet.
FMD disease is very rarely transmitted to humans, but its extremely high contagiousness and rapid spread in livestock have serious economic consequences. Infected animals cannot be treated, so if even one animal on a farm is confirmed to have the disease, all cloven-hoofed animals must be culled.