Veterinary services uphold mandate for mass culling due to foot-and-mouth disease

The Veterinary Services and the Ministry of Agriculture have officially rejected the demand of livestock farmers to cease the mass culling of animals in farms affected by foot-and-mouth disease. Farmers, who held a protest, had requested a shift toward selective culling of only clinically or laboratory-confirmed positive animals, threatening to block the Rizoelia roundabout if their demands were not met. Authorities clarified that foot-and-mouth disease is classified as a Category A disease under European Union legislation. Specifically, Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2020/687 mandates the immediate, indiscriminate culling of all animals in an affected facility to prevent the spread of the pathogen. The services emphasized that this is a strict legal obligation with no possibility of deviation, rather than a policy choice. Furthermore, officials called upon all farmers to adhere strictly to biosecurity measures to protect their holdings. The government stated that the response was made public due to a lack of individual contact information provided in the farmers' memorandum.