Czech farmers scramble to secure their livestock as foot-and-mouth comes closer
Slovakia this week confirmed foot-and-mouth disease at a fourth farm in the southern parts of the country. The highly contagious disease, for which there is no cure, spread there from Hungary where it appeared several weeks ago. Strict veterinary measures are in place in Czechia, which has managed to avoid the disease for half a century.
Czech farmers are scrambling to secure their livestock in the face of what could wipe them out in one fell swoop. Foot-and-mouth last occurred in Czechoslovakia in 1975 and the only response to it is culling all animals affected. In addition to large cattle, foot-and-mouth disease threatens goats, sheep, pigs and some wild animals. Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný warned that the situation is very serious and urged farmers to implement all possible precautionary measures.
Tomáš Majer from the Faculty of Operational Economics of the Czech Agricultural University said the spread of the disease to Czechia would have serious consequences.
“It is a huge potential risk, as it is probably the most contagious disease in agriculture and is known to be transmitted over tens of kilometers by air. It is an aggressive disease that needs to be isolated and stopped at the outset as fast as possible.
“Its spread to Czechia would be a huge problem for us, because our agriculture and food industry is based on exporting live animals. We slaughter only to a small extent here and are net exporters of animals. Finished meat products or processed meat are then imported back to this country, mainly from Austria and Germany. If we could not export our live animals to Austria and Germany, it would be quite a fatal problem for our livestock farmers.”
The Czech Republic reinstated random border checks with Slovakia as soon as the disease was first confirmed in the neighbor state and there is a ban on the import of sheep, goat, pig and cattle products from that country. Another aspect of the potential risk is that Czech farmers are generally not insured against the disease.
“Farmers are often not insured, even though the state subsidizes part of the insurance through the Support and Guarantee Fund for Agriculture and Forestry. Most farmers do not have insurance because foot-and-mouth disease has not occurred in our country for several decades, so they were not expecting to have to face this threat. But agricultural insurance is a big problem in general. It often does not pay, so farmers take the risk. Last year, for example, early spring frost destroyed hundreds of orchards and a minimum number of farmers were insured.”
Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný says that while all possible preventive measures are being implemented and the authorities are hoping for the best they are also preparing for a worst-case scenario.
“Of course we have to be prepared and we have crisis scenarios at all levels including the Ministry of Agriculture, the integrated rescue system, the Ministry of Defence and others. However, at the moment, what we are concentrating on is preventive action so as to keep this disease outside Czech borders.”
