Vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease has paid off and there is some restriction on the spread of the disease, said on Thursday Stavros Malas, Head of the Special Scientific Committee for the Reconstruction and Upgrading of the Livestock Sector, who announced that on Saturday he will meet with a group of livestock breeders who are organizing themselves.
Answering a question about the situation with foot-and-mouth disease at the moment, Mr. Malas said that "there is some limitation in the spread of the disease, but certainly in the areas that have already been affected, the control must be completed to see where we will end up". He was speaking on the sidelines of an event at the Cyprus Institute, of which he is President.
He added that "vaccination has worked, it must be taken for granted, precisely because the spread does not have the rates we saw in the early stages of the disease and with these data we remain optimistic that we will stay at the levels we are seeing now so that at some point we can resume our planning to fully restore the situation".
Mr. Malas noted that "this epizootic disease will leave behind a legacy, since Cyprus will change its status for the coming years and will not have the status it had previously, of the country free of foot-and-mouth disease and without vaccinations".
He explained that "we will be a country at least in the foreseeable future without foot-and-mouth disease but with a vaccination regime, which means that we will not be able to export raw fresh meat, which will affect our pig farming which held its own share of the trade in terms of exports".
Asked about the fate of animals belonging to the rare breeds, Mr. Malas said that in terms of this issue "the jurisdiction belongs exclusively to the Veterinary Services to decide" what will happen, he added, however, that "there is a small loophole, but with many reservations, this is how all the data and the fact that the affected unit is one, will weigh, although there are others with rare breeds that remain without foot-and-mouth disease."
He said that "what the Veterinary Services will weigh is whether one unit is killed, whether the breed is affected, given that the other unit has fewer animals".
Mr. Malas made it clear that "there is no risk of losing the breed, there is a risk of losing the genetic biodiversity of the breed, so the more animals you have, the better for the breed".
Asked to send a message to the livestock farmers who appear immovable in their positions, Mr. Malas said that "the message to the livestock farmers is to turn a deaf ear to the calls of some who are indulging in a scenario that we are trying to destroy the livestock of the place".
Mr. Malas added that "science will stand by both small and large breeders and sheep and goat breeders who need more scientific support and empathy".
He said that "with some of the breeders who are organizing themselves we will have a meeting next Saturday", noting that "my own promise and mission is to inform them with a lot of transparency, to explain to them exactly where we are today in relation to the disease and in general I will answer all their concerns".
"We are next to the breeders, we are not against them," said Mr. Malas.
