New foot and mouth scare in Hungary just announced

Breaking news in today that classic symptoms of foot and mouth disease were detected in a herd of 1400 cattle on a farm in Hungary. It's the first outbreak of the disease in the country for 50 years. We understand that FMD was detected 'at the beginning of March' and that Hungarian authorities have now halted all animal movements. Worryingly this area is a source of much live animal export, so Europe is now on high alert.

This serves to underline our calls for the UK government to tighten its biosecurity controls, specifically to place a blanket ban on all personal imports of meat products by travellers coming into the UK. In our previous article we highlighted all the vulnerabilities that still haven't been addressed; things like our paper-based traceability system, slow reactions to announcements and lack of extra disinfecting measures at ports.

This is the second wake-up call in as many months that the UK has had. And this time the risk appears to be greater because of the number and movements of the affected animals. We are monitoring this unfolding situation and continue to urge Defra to go further with their precautionary measures to keep Britain free of foot and mouth disease.