EUROPEAN Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou yesterday announced the European Commission’s decision to lift some of the restrictive measures imposed after the recent foot and mouth outbreak.
As of Monday, the EC will allow the export of pork meat from Cyprus, the slaughter of animals from within the 10km exclusion zone and the production of milk from animals in the 3km zone.
However, until the disease is entirely combated, Cyprus will not be allowed to export livestock.
Kyprianou relayed Brussels’ plans to the House Agriculture Committee yesterday morning, where he also explained the EU’s plans to offer Cyprus a five-year deadline to also get rid of scrapie.
Regarding FMD, the EU commissioner said that the second suspected outbreaks spotted in Nicosia and Paphos also showed clinical symptoms, which was why Cyprus had to take drastic measures.
He explained that the EU’s stance on livestock health and safety was very strict and the island therefore had no choice but to cull the animals, while he added that suspicions over a European conspiracy to kill Cyprus’ livestock were totally unfounded.
According to Kyprianou, the EC had expressed satisfaction with the way the Cyprus authorities dealt with the situation.
“The lab results are there, the data is there and I don’t think that the entire EU had conspired to serve some interests in Cyprus,” he told reporters after the meeting.
The animals were killed to prevent an epidemic of the disease, which spreads very easily.
“You can’t take any chances,” Kyprianou pointed out, referring to a similar outbreak in the UK, which resulted in the killing of six million animals and a huge dent in the country’s economy.
The commissioner put paid to rumours that the disease came from vaccines, saying that the European Lab tests showed the opposite, but he said it was incredibly difficult to determine where the disease had come from.
Kyprianou also announced good news for the scrapie outbreak, which he said was the main threat for Cyprus, as the island has the most incidents in the EU. The EC is expected to give a postponement of five years for the culling of infected sheep. In the meantime, the sick animals must be replaced with healthy ones.
Kyprianou said that for more than two years, Cyprus failed to send samples for scrapie to the EU saying there were technical problems. But the problem has now been solved and tests are being carried out locally.
The commissioner stressed the need for more emphasis to be given to replacing sheep suffering from scrapie and gradually culling the infected animals.
Committee chairman Yiannakis Thoma of AKEL said the state was justified for taking strict measures for killing animals. Now, he said, it was of crucial essence to lift the measures imposed by the EU as soon as possible.
Agriculture Minister Fotis Fotiou repeated it was too soon to draw conclusions over the three suspected FMD cases that were spotted on Wednesday in Paphos and Nicosia farms, saying that the state was awaiting the results of the European lab before deciding what to do further.
