German fears of foot-and-mouth grew yesterday after the first confirmed cases in the Netherlands. The environment ministry in North-Rhine Westphalia announced it was closing factories that had imported animals from the Dutch state of Gelderland in the past month.
More than 1,200 factories in the state have imported animals from Gelderland since the start of February, a spokesman said. The environment minister in North-Rhine Westphalia, Ms Barbel Hohn, said foot-and-mouth just 40km from the German border meant the threat of the disease was now real.
She called on the EU to introduce vaccination. "Despite the slaughters, it is not possible to stop the disease," she said.
Mr Gerd Sonnleitner, the leader of Germany's biggest farm union, the DBV, said he had asked EU authorities to consider blanket vaccination. Germany has not had any cases despite several scares.
The German Agriculture Minister, Ms Renate Kunast, however, pointed to disinfection measures and a week-old ban on animal imports from Holland. "At the very least, the danger of infection is reduced," she said.
It would be dangerous for Germany to be lulled into a false sense of security, she said. Germany's denial it had any cases of BSE cost her predecessor his job after mad cow disease was found late last year.
The German agriculture ministry has described the second outbreak of foot-and-mouth on the Continent as "a very serious situation". Yesterday a spokesman said it had increased its emergency reserve of foot-and-mouth vaccine from 100,000 to 600,000 doses, but it would be used only if and when EU-wide measures were agreed.
