Budapest: Hungary suggested on Thursday a “biological attack” as a possible source of the first epidemic of diseases in the country and mouth in addition to half a century, which triggered the closure of the borders and the slaughter of mass cattle in the northwest.
Hungary reported a first case of feet and mouth disease in more than 50 years in a cattle farm in the northwest near the border with Austria and Slovakia last month, the World Animal Health Organization said, citing the Hungarian authorities.
Thousands of cattle had to be slaughtered while the country without coastline tries to contain the epidemic, while Austria and Slovakia closed dozens of border passages, after the disease also appeared in the southern part of Slovakia.
“At this stage, we can say that it cannot be excluded that the virus was not of natural origin, we could face an artificially modified virus,” said Guly Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Gulyly Gulyas.
Answering a question, Gulyas said he couldn’t exclude that the virus epidemic was the result of a biological attack, without giving information about who could be responsible.
He also said that suspicion was based on verbal information received from a foreign laboratory and that their conclusions have not yet been entirely proven and documented.
The Hungarian cattle stock was 861,000 heads based on a cattle census in December, little compared to levels a year earlier. This represented 1.2% of the total cattle actions in the European Union, according to official statistics.
The disease of the foot and mouth does not represent any danger for humans but causes blisters of fever and mouth in clandestine ruminants such as livestock, pigs, sheep and goats, and epidemics often lead to commercial restrictions.
Gulyas told journalists that no new epidemic had been detected and that the authorities were continuously taking samples.
