FMD: Measures Revised For Cyprus, UK

Foot and Mouth Disease: measures revised for Cyprus and UK

Member States today endorsed Commission proposals to revise certain foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) measures in both Cyprus and the UK, to reflect the fact that there have been no recent outbreaks in either country.

At the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, it was agreed that Cyprus should be allowed to resume exports of pig-meat from nearly the whole island, subject to certain animal health conditions.

For the UK, it was agreed that meat and meat products could be dispatched again from the whole of Great Britain, although exports of live susceptible animals from Surrey and its surroundings are still banned.

Cyprus

Under the Decision agreed today, pig-meat will be allowed to be dispatched from all of Cyprus apart from a 10km zone around the outbreak area, subject to stringent animal health conditions. This is because pigs are raised separately and under different conditions to ruminants, and are considered to be less susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease.

The conditions for dispatch include a 30 day pre-slaughter standstill for pigs used to produce the meat, with no new susceptible livestock introduced to the holding for 21 days prior to slaughter. At the slaughterhouse, the animals must be killed immediately, and ante- and post-mortem inspections will have to be carried out.

The meat will then have to be quarantined for 24 hours and can only be dispatched if there was no suspicion of disease in the holding of origin. For all other animals and meat products, the full protection and control measures still apply i.e. no ruminants or their products can be dispatched and movement restrictions remain in place.

The Cypriot authorities have informed the Commission that they are continuing testing and serological investigations into the source of the FMD outbreak, especially in the 3km and 10km risk zones.

UK

The Standing Committee agreed to further ease the FMD restrictions for the UK, on account of the fact that there have been no outbreaks of the disease there since end-September.

Products will now be allowed to be exported from the whole of Great Britain The export of live susceptible animals from Surrey and its surroundings is still banned however, in order to protect the FMD-free status of other Member States.

The rest of the UK is classified as "free from FMD", which means that movement restrictions will no longer apply, and susceptible animals, their meat and products can be traded normally, with only a few additional precautionary checks.

All foot-and-mouth disease measures for the UK will elapse on 31st December, so long as there are no further outbreaks of the disease in the meantime.

ENDS

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