Four thousand pigs to be culled

Four thousand pigs will be culled following the first confirmed case of foot and mouth disease (FMD) at a pig unit with a capacity of 4,000 animals in the Palaiometocho area, the Veterinary Services said on Thursday as fresh concerns were raised about the spread of the virus.

Veterinary Services spokeswoman Sotiria Georgiadou told the Cyprus Mail the matter is being looked into “and we are waiting to see how it will evolve”.

In addition, she said the animals will be treated in the same way as other breeds have so far, and all animals in infected units will be culled.

The detection of the virus as far as west Nicosia overturns the previously stable and reassuring picture that it had been contained within 80 infected sheep and goat units in Larnaca and southern Nicosia, specifically Dali and Geri and 11 cattle units.

Until now, sampling, contact tracing and laboratory testing across the rest of Cyprus had indicated that the outbreak was largely confined to those areas.

President of the Pancyprian Veterinary Association Dr Dimitris Epaminondas told the Cyprus Mail “what we need to see is whether new measures will be taken and whether the strategy will change”.

Regarding the new cluster, Georgiadou said police were immediately informed “to set up roadblocks and disinfection points”, adding that “the three units are isolated anyway”. Since the three units are in the same area and belong to the same family, “epidemiologically we now consider them as one unit”, she added.

“All our efforts will now go to this specific pig farm, to ensure that these pigs are culled as quickly as possible,” she said, as pigs shed the virus much quicker than sheep, goats and cattle.

But she said the spread of the virus “was not a failure”, attributing the main responsibility to the human factor.

“Machinery, clothes, shoes, movements – all of these put all farmers at risk,” she said, stressing that “standstill measures are very important”.

So far around 33,000 to 34,000 sheep, goats and cattle have been culled, with around 4,000 pigs from Palaiometocho to join this number.

In terms of vaccinations, she said the second dose has reached 73.5 per cent of cattle, 56.3 per cent of sheep and goats, while pig units in the two infected zones so far have reached 84 per cent.

After the Paliometocho case, 92 farming units have now ben infected, which Georgiadou said “with mathematical certainty I believe we will reach a three-digit number”. However, she said most infected units are small.

Losses remain “manageable”, she added, reaching around 2.6 per cent of cattle and 6.4 per cent of sheep and goats.

Meanwhile, Unficyp said its officers working in the buffer zone near the Paliometocho farm were supporting biosecurity efforts to keep FMD away from livestock and farming communities in the buffer zone.

The Cyprus Pig Farmers Association president Petros Kalias said it is still too early to determine whether prices will be affected, adding that even if the overall impact at a nationwide level is small, the damage for each affected farmer individually is significant.