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German meat and dairy products have been placed under international curbs after the country’s first outbreak in more than three decades of foot-and-mouth, the highly contagious livestock disease.
The EU’s biggest economy has lost its foot-and-mouth free status under World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) rules, meaning many products cannot obtain the necessary veterinary certificates for exports beyond the bloc.
Foot-and-mouth is easily transmissible and sometimes lethal in livestock including cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. While the viral disease is not considered a threat to humans, past outbreaks have prompted mass animal culls, with costs in one UK case running into billions of euros.
The international export ban is another blow to the struggling German economy and comes as the country prepares for an early election next month after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular coalition.
The outbreak originated in water buffalo on a farm in the eastern state of Brandenburg, the government said. Authorities in Brandenburg and neighbouring Berlin have ordered a six-day halt to the transport for animals capable of transmitting the disease, to allow investigations to take place.
South Korea has already stopped imports of some German livestock. Seoul has halted shipments of German pork and quarantined 360 tonnes of meat delivered since December 27. Mexico has also banned the import of pork products, a spokesperson for Germany’s agriculture ministry said on Monday.
The UK government said it was in contact with its German counterparts as well as the UK’s devolved administrations, to prevent foot-and-mouth’s spread through imported goods.
“We have robust contingency plans in place to manage the risk of this disease to protect farmers and Britain’s food security,” said a spokesperson for the environment, food and rural affairs department
In the EU, the Netherlands has imposed restrictions on the transport of calves within its borders.
Foot-and-mouth is estimated to circulate in 77 per cent of the global livestock population and poses a “constant threat” to nations that are free of it but do not have robust vaccination regimes, according to WOAH.
Germany has not experienced a foot-and-mouth outbreak since 1988. The last European outbreak was in Bulgaria in 2011. That led to the cull of 1,372 wild and domestic animals and took six months to resolve.
One of the most destructive European outbreaks took place in the UK in 2001, triggering the killing of 6.5mn infected and in-contact animals.
The direct cost of the outbreak was estimated to be more than £3bn, with a further £5bn in losses incurred by the tourism industry. The UK experienced another scare in 2007, when the virus escaped from a research facility through a faulty drainage pipe and was detected on the tyres of lorries.
Peter Hardwick, policy adviser at the British Meat Processors Association, said the UK should immediately place antiseptic mats and other safeguards at ports, stations and airports. This would stop the spread of the virus through people’s shoes or vehicle tyres, he added.
“We are all right to be concerned that prompt action is taken here,” he said.
In Germany, the trade of livestock products that did not come from the affected areas was still possible within the EU, the agriculture ministry spokesperson said, adding that the economic impact of the restrictions was still unclear.
The outbreak risks reviving discontent among farmers. Huge protests erupted last year after the government sought to end tax breaks on diesel fuel and the purchase of agricultural vehicles. Some of the measures were reversed.
