Health Commissioner briefs House committee on next movesTHE export of pork will be permitted next week as measures ordered by the European Commission after the foot and mouth (FMD) outbreak are eased, EU Health and Consumers’ Protection Commissioner, Marcos Kyprianou said yesterday.
The Commissioner, addressing the House Agriculture Committee, said that the EU Commission meeting scheduled for Monday would discuss the next steps to be taken with regard to FMD in Cyprus, restrictive measures are expected to relax and the export of pork will be allowed from the island to other EU countries and elsewhere.
The Commissioner said that restrictive measures in the 10km surveillance zone in the Dromolaxia area are also expected to ease and the transfer of animals from the area to abattoirs for slaughter will also be allowed.
The Commissioner told MPs that the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare would also allow the sale of milk from the 3kms protection zone.
Kyprianou informed the committee on the process of the "strictest" measures taken by Europe with regards to animal diseases, which come under the health portfolio, rather than agriculture and are considered a top priority.
The Commissioner said that the FMD antibodies in Cyprus did not come from vaccines.
He briefed MPs on a European animal health safety strategy and the EU action plan for animal health in EU Member States.
Referring to FMD in Cyprus, the Commissioner said "it is a crisis, not the first one in Europe which will soon be over."
Kyprianou said that exports of animals would not be allowed until Cyprus is declared FMD-free.
The Commissioner was clear that measures taken by the authorities against FMD were those designated by the EU, which has strict regulations on animal health anywhere in the world.
He expressed the Commission’s satisfaction for the measures taken noting that the FMD cases showed clinical symptoms and lab findings and that there is no conspiracy in Europe to cull animals in Cyprus.
In the event of a disease outbreak or of a mere suspicion of one, Europe’s policy is to take the strictest measures from the beginning to avoid any spread of the disease and relax them according to developments of a situation, he said.
"The laboratory results are there, facts are there and I don’t think that the entire EU conspired so that it can serve certain interests in Cyprus," the Commissioner said.
The culling of animals, he noted, is a prevention and eradication strategy and not a euthanasia process, even when there is only a suspicion of the disease.
With regards to FMD in the occupied areas, the Commissioner noted that according to the Green Line regulations, the movement of livestock across the Green Line is not allowed from areas not controlled by the Republic.
He explained that the Commission at this stage cannot organise preventive vaccination programmes, like it did in Thrace, to stop FMD from spreading to the EU from Turkey, where there is a serious problem.
Following the outbreak of the disease in Dromolaxia, there were more fears this week of it spreading elsewhere on the island since suspected cases were detected in Paphos (2) and Nicosia (1).
Veterinary Services head Charalambos Kakoyiannis said that tests continued and that in the last 20 days, 19,000 samples would be sent abroad for testing.
With regard to the disease, Kakoyiannis said that antibodies tested positive but FMD in Cyprus was mild.
Agriculture Minister Photis Photiou said that the problem was created by some people on the island and that the police would soon be on top of it.
The minister said that there were cases of FMD in cattle in Dromolaxia and that further specialised tests would be carried out in the Pirbright Community Reference Laboratory to confirm the disease.
So far 2,200 animals have been culled in the affected Dromolaxia area.
Box
THE government yesterday was expecting a reply from businessmen in Vietnam on whether they would buy most of the 30,000 pigs who were not sold on the Cyprus market, as a result of the FMD outbreak.
If the pigs are exported the compensation costs for local farmers which amount to £2m for the government will be reduced.
Farmers will be compensated for the pigs, which will not be sold, according to a plan, which includes culling, transport and incineration.
Caption
SATISFIED: EU Health and Consumers’ Protection Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou told MPs that the measures taken by the authorities against FMD were the correct ones and in line with the European Commission.
The Commissioner, addressing the House Agriculture Committee, said that the EU Commission meeting scheduled for Monday would discuss the next steps to be taken with regard to FMD in Cyprus, restrictive measures are expected to relax and the export of pork will be allowed from the island to other EU countries and elsewhere.
The Commissioner said that restrictive measures in the 10km surveillance zone in the Dromolaxia area are also expected to ease and the transfer of animals from the area to abattoirs for slaughter will also be allowed.
The Commissioner told MPs that the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare would also allow the sale of milk from the 3kms protection zone.
Kyprianou informed the committee on the process of the "strictest" measures taken by Europe with regards to animal diseases, which come under the health portfolio, rather than agriculture and are considered a top priority.
The Commissioner said that the FMD antibodies in Cyprus did not come from vaccines.
He briefed MPs on a European animal health safety strategy and the EU action plan for animal health in EU Member States.
Referring to FMD in Cyprus, the Commissioner said "it is a crisis, not the first one in Europe which will soon be over."
Kyprianou said that exports of animals would not be allowed until Cyprus is declared FMD-free.
The Commissioner was clear that measures taken by the authorities against FMD were those designated by the EU, which has strict regulations on animal health anywhere in the world.
He expressed the Commission’s satisfaction for the measures taken noting that the FMD cases showed clinical symptoms and lab findings and that there is no conspiracy in Europe to cull animals in Cyprus.
In the event of a disease outbreak or of a mere suspicion of one, Europe’s policy is to take the strictest measures from the beginning to avoid any spread of the disease and relax them according to developments of a situation, he said.
"The laboratory results are there, facts are there and I don’t think that the entire EU conspired so that it can serve certain interests in Cyprus," the Commissioner said.
The culling of animals, he noted, is a prevention and eradication strategy and not a euthanasia process, even when there is only a suspicion of the disease.
With regards to FMD in the occupied areas, the Commissioner noted that according to the Green Line regulations, the movement of livestock across the Green Line is not allowed from areas not controlled by the Republic.
He explained that the Commission at this stage cannot organise preventive vaccination programmes, like it did in Thrace, to stop FMD from spreading to the EU from Turkey, where there is a serious problem.
Following the outbreak of the disease in Dromolaxia, there were more fears this week of it spreading elsewhere on the island since suspected cases were detected in Paphos (2) and Nicosia (1).
Veterinary Services head Charalambos Kakoyiannis said that tests continued and that in the last 20 days, 19,000 samples would be sent abroad for testing.
With regard to the disease, Kakoyiannis said that antibodies tested positive but FMD in Cyprus was mild.
Agriculture Minister Photis Photiou said that the problem was created by some people on the island and that the police would soon be on top of it.
The minister said that there were cases of FMD in cattle in Dromolaxia and that further specialised tests would be carried out in the Pirbright Community Reference Laboratory to confirm the disease.
So far 2,200 animals have been culled in the affected Dromolaxia area.
Box
THE government yesterday was expecting a reply from businessmen in Vietnam on whether they would buy most of the 30,000 pigs who were not sold on the Cyprus market, as a result of the FMD outbreak.
If the pigs are exported the compensation costs for local farmers which amount to £2m for the government will be reduced.
Farmers will be compensated for the pigs, which will not be sold, according to a plan, which includes culling, transport and incineration.
Caption
SATISFIED: EU Health and Consumers’ Protection Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou told MPs that the measures taken by the authorities against FMD were the correct ones and in line with the European Commission.
(By Demetra Molyva, Cyprus Weekly)
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