Several countries have already taken precautionary measures or imposed bans, as the German livestock sector braces for longer-term impact.
German livestock farmers fear they could suffer crippling costs after the country’s first case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in nearly four decades was detected in a farm near Berlin last Friday.
The disease has the potential to devastate animal agriculture. An outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused an agricultural and tourism crisis costing more than €15 billion. Authorities slaughtered more than 6 million animals in efforts to eradicate the disease.
“We should concentrate on preventing the spread of the disease,” European Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen told German Radio on Wednesday, while also acknowledging the “direct impact on the economic situation of businesses” that trade restrictions will bring.
After the first case was confirmed in water buffaloes, local authorities quickly moved to ban animal transport in the state of Brandenburg, ordering the killing of the whole herd as well as 200 pigs from a nearby farm.
FMD is a contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Symptoms include fever, sores, blisters and overall reluctance to move or eat. While the mortality rate is less than 5 percent in adult animals, they’re often slaughtered to contain outbreaks.
In addition, Germany has suspended veterinary certificates for any live animal exports as a precaution for up to nine months after the eradication of the disease.
However, some of Germany’s largest trading partners outside of the EU have taken matters into their own hands and imposed import bans.
The U.K. — Germany’s biggest animal products customer outside of the bloc — has halted the import of cattle, pigs and sheep on Tuesday, causing a backlog of shipments. following similar moves by South Korea and Mexico.
“We definitely have to prevent it from becoming a chain reaction,” warned Hansen, who praised German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir’s handling of the crisis.
The EU’s most recent FMD outbreak happened in 2011 in wild boar in Bulgaria. “The outbreak was managed under EU regulations, which included measures such as culling and a standstill on animal movements,” a spokesperson for the European Food Safety Agency told POLITICO, adding that no vaccination was needed.
However, “while mortality rates in animals are generally low, the disease can lead to severe economic losses in production animals and disruption in the national and international trade,” the spokesperson added.
A €5 billion problem
In 2024, German meat exports reached almost €5 billion, but according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture “it is too early at this stage to make any statements about the extent of the economic damage — be it within the EU or with non-EU countries.”
On the other hand, the German Farmers Association (DBV) already expects the cost to be “massive,” its General Secretary Bernhard Krüsken said. He suspects that the virus has been around for longer than a week and has urged federal leaders to find a way for animal products from FMD-free areas to continue to be exported.
For animal welfare campaigners, this is only a part of a broader, systemic problem.
“One disease chases the other (African swine fever, bluetongue, FMD), quickly causing hysteria in governments and fear for national economies due to industrial farming and a globalised trade in live animals,” Iris Baumgärtner of the Animal Welfare Foundation, a German NGO, told POLITICO.
Under the bloc’s rules, intra-EU movement of animals could continue from FMD-free German regions, but some countries are also taking their own measures.
The Netherlands quickly imposed a ban on the transport of thousands of German calves in the country. According to Agriculture Minister Femke Wiersma, at least 3,600 calves originating from the affected German state have been distributed across more than 125 Dutch farms. Similarly, the Belgian food safety agency has blocked 16 farms that received around 150 cows from Germany.
“I have huge concerns about the welfare of unweaned male calves, [which have] anyway [been] degraded to a by-product of milk production, if they cannot be sold. Dairy farmers have no use, space or time for them due to their high level of specialisation,” Baumgärtner added.
Özdemir met with livestock producers on Monday and said that trade from FMD-free areas in Germany was still possible while the ministry is “doing everything we can to enable exports to as many [extra-EU] markets as possible as quickly as possible.”
The minister also wants to use the upcoming International Green Week, an annual agrifood fair in Berlin, to reassure trading partners. Hansen is also expected at the event — but has canceled a visit to a farm in Brandenburg. “I don’t want to be responsible for the spread of a virus myself,” he said.
Hansen will discuss next steps with Özdemir on Thursday. “This is the first [FMD] case. For the second case, should it come, we would sit down together and talk,” Hansen said, “but we have to go one step at a time.”
