Veterinary authority tests emergency plans for mouth and claw disease!

Veterinary authority tests emergency plans for mouth and claw disease!

Schmalkalden-Meiningen, Deutschland - The alarm bells ring! After the outbreak of the mouth and claw disease (MKS) in Brandenburg at the end of January 2025, when a cattle stopped, Thuringia has now taken preventive measures. According to Rhönkanal in the course of which all animals of the affected inventory were killed and extensive investigations were held to make other infected companies. Fortunately, there was an all -clear after several weeks.

In order to be better prepared for similar situations, Thuringia carried out extensive "state -owned exercises" from June 29 to July 2, 2025. This year the practice scenario was particularly realistic: symptoms such as aphten formation and increased saliva were observed in agricultural companies. The fictitiously removed samples were promptly sent to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (Fli), which confirmed the outbreak of the MKS on June 30, at 4:00 a.m. This reports erfurt.de .

The challenges of animal disease control

The mouth and claw disease is a highly contagious viral infection that mainly affects a banks such as cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. It shows symptoms such as fever and bubble formation in the mouth mucosa, and can cause serious economic damage because it entails international trade restrictions. Fortunately, the virus is usually harmless to people, which relieves the situation a bit. Nevertheless, effective contamination measures are essential, such as BMEL emphasized.

in Thuringia was therefore placed great emphasis on cooperation between the veterinary authorities and the civil protection staff. Extensive task catalogs were made available to the veterinary authorities, and legal orders for the fictional scenarios were developed. Dr. David Sporn, specialist service manager and official veterinarian, has highlighted the importance of such exercises to check and improve the preparations.

A look at future security

An important goal of these exercises was to train the animal disease-based control measures in accordance with EU animal health law. This facilitates the planning and implementation in the event of an actual outbreak, whereby everyone involved recognizes how important close cooperation is. The exercise was successfully completed after three labor-intensive days and showed the clear will of everyone involved to actively contribute to the securing of animal health and thus to minimize economic damage in the agricultural and food sector.

The past events, especially the first MKS outbreak in Germany since 1988, have shown that a quick action and well-practiced processes are crucial for combating such epidemics. The federal states Task Force animal disease fighting and the central crisis team of animal diseases are at the forefront as important institutions and bring valuable expertise to protect agriculture in Thuringia and beyond.