Released on: November 6, 2007, 11:20 am

Press Release Author: newnews

Industry: Financial

Press Release Summary: Cyprus has culled more than 500 animals in a bid to contain
its first foot and mouth outbreak in more than 40 years and thousands more are at
risk, officials warned on Tuesday.

Press Release Body: Veterinary officials have pinpointed more suspect farms in the
area of the original outbreak at the village of Dromolaxia in the Larnaca district
on the island\'s south coast.

Some 200 goats and sheep were culled on Tuesday as a pre-emptive measure, a day
after 330 animals were killed, with animals from four of the seven suspect farms
already targeted.

\"It seems that we are obliged to kill livestock from the three remaining farms as
well, which represents around 1,500 animals,\" Agriculture Minister Photis Photiou
said on state radio.

\"Nobody can rule out the culling of many more animals if other test results come
back from London indicating the disease has spread,\" the Greek Cypriot minister
warned.

Definitive laboratory results from Britain have confirmed the outbreak of foot and
mouth on Cyprus.

The government is now awaiting results on samples taken from livestock from Paphos
in the southwest of the island.

If those results prove positive it would mean the disease has spread beyond its
original confines, spelling out the worst scenario as there are more than 5,000
livestocks units on the island.

The European Commission has issued an export ban on Cyprus meat and dairy products
while imposing a blanket ban on the transport of cattle across the island. Exports
of the distinctive white halloumi cheese have escaped the ban.

President Tassos Papadopoulos convened a meeting on Tuesday on how to tackle the
outbreak and its negative impact on the Cyprus economy.

He pledged immediate support and full compensation for farmers, saying the economy
was \"robust\" enough to withstand the financial burden. \"We will not allow our animal
husbandry to be destroyed,\" Papadopoulos told reporters.

Cypriot authorities have established a three-kilometre (two-mile) protection zone
around the farms at the centre of the outbreak, while also enforcing a wider
10-kilometre surveillance zone.

An estimated 150,000 animals are within both zones, representing around a third of
the island\'s total livestock.

Culled animals are being buried on the spot at the suspected sites as part an
EU-monitored action plan to contain the highly contagious disease, which was last
reported in Cyprus in 1963.

The government has promised a compensation package -- expected to run into millions
of euros -- to farmers. aiming to cover not only the loss of each animal but also
loss of income.

The cause of the outbreak is still unknown, although some breeders are blaming it on
imported livestock that was not properly checked.

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Contact Details: Athens, Greece