Germany declared free of foot-and-mouth disease months after outbreak

Germany has been declared officially free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), three months after an outbreak in the eastern state of Brandenburg, the state's Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday, reported dpa.

The World Organisation for Animal Health approved an application to lift restrictions around the affected area on Monday, the ministry said.

The outbreak - the first in Germany in more than 35 years - was discovered in a herd of buffalo in Hönow, just outside Berlin, in January.

The European Commission subsequently ordered a 6-kilometre exclusion zone around the site of the outbreak, restricting the transport of animals from the area, while several countries announced bans on imports of German agricultural products.

However, all tests for FMD in domestic and wild animals in the affected region have since been negative, enabling all trade restrictions to be lifted.

Germany has thus returned to the status of being "free of FMD without vaccination."

Animals are not usually vaccinated against the disease in the European Union, as FMD is deemed to have been eradicated in the bloc.

However, cases of FMD have recently been found in livestock in Slovakia and Hungary.

Brandenburg Agriculture Minister Hanka Mittelstädt warned that "there is still a risk of the animal disease re-entering Germany from infected areas - especially through travel, food or animal transport."