The state of Brandenburg in Germany has announced that it has activated its foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine bank.
Earlier this month, authorities in Germany confirmed the first outbreak of the disease in the country since 1988.
The outbreak was confirmed in water buffalo in Brandenburg, which is situated in the north-east of Germany and as a result, the vaccine bank has now been activated.
Foot-and-mouth disease vaccine
FMD is a highly contagious viral disease in cloven-hoofed animals (cattle, sheep, goats and pigs) and many zoo and wild animals can also contract FMD.
It is one of the world’s most economically important animal diseases due to its very high contagiousness and tendency to spread quickly.
In the event of an FMD outbreak, livestock populations must be protected quickly and effectively against a possible further spread of the FMD virus, according to the German Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Climate Protection.
“There is, therefore, agreement between the federal states and the federal government that the fight against foot-and-mouth disease will be carried out with the utmost consistency and with the highest priority,” the ministry has stated.
“For this purpose, the federal states established their own FMD vaccine bank for Germany years ago.
“Due to the current FMD outbreak, the federal states of Brandenburg, as the currently affected state, have asked the federal states to activate the FMD vaccine bank in order to be prepared in the event of a possible spread of FMD to other areas in Germany.”
The European Commission allows member states to use these vaccines as an additional disease control measure, subject to certain conditions.
The vaccine will be kept in stock as a possible control measure in the event of a further spread of the disease or in the event of its occurrence in other regions of Germany.
Brandenburg has therefore applied for the activation of this FMD vaccine bank in order to be prepared for all conceivable future scenarios, including outside Brandenburg.
Spread
The ministry added that the activation of the FMD vaccine bank yesterday (Monday, January 20) serves to strengthen the ability to respond in the fight against the disease, as at least six days are needed from activation to the possible provision of vaccine doses.
The federal states have agreed that the costs for the activation of this vaccine bank should be distributed among the states according to the Konigstein key.
However, this decision to activate the FMD vaccine bank is not a decision for the actual use of this vaccine.
In Brandenburg, the ministry said that vaccination is not planned given the current epidemic situation.
So far, there is one outbreak farm in Brandenburg and all previous investigations in the vicinity of the outbreak farm have been negative, so no further spread of the disease has been detected so far.
