Animal transports have been banned in a state surrounding Berlin on Saturday, and the capital’s two zoos closed as a precaution, after foot and mouth disease was detected in a buffalo herd just outside the city. It is Germany’s first outbreak for more than 35 years.
Authorities in Brandenburg state said on Friday that a farmer found three of a 14-strong herd of water buffalo dead in Hoenow, just outside the capital’s city limits. Germany’s national animal health institute confirmed that foot and mouth disease had been detected in samples from one animal, and the rest of the herd was slaughtered. It was not clear how the animals were infected.
A 72-hour ban on transporting cows, pigs, sheep, goats and other animals such as camels and llamas in Brandenburg came into force Saturday. Berlin’s two zoos closed from Saturday as a preventative measure.
Their management said in a statement that while the virus is not dangerous to humans, it can stick to their clothing and be transmitted. Authorities said that about 200 pigs at a farm in Ahrensfelde, near where the outbreak was detected, would be slaughtered as a precaution.
Foot and mouth disease is caused by a virus that infects cattle, sheep, goats, swine and other cloven-hoofed animals. While death rates are typically low, the disease can make animals ill with fever, decreased appetite, excessive drooling, blisters and other symptoms.
The virus spreads easily through contact and airborne transmission and can quickly infect entire herds. People can spread the disease via things like farming equipment, shoes, clothing and vehicle tyres that have come into contact with the virus.
The last outbreak in Germany was in 1988 and the last in Europe in 2011, according to Germany’s animal health institute.