Minister Nagy: Efforts to contain foot-and-mouth disease successful in Hungary, new decontamination points – video

Agriculture Minister István Nagy said at a press briefing in Mosonmagyarovar (NW Hungary) on Tuesday that measures to contain the spread of foot-and-mouth disease have been successful, and no new outbreaks have been reported.

Speaking after a meeting of the animal health operative corps, Nagy said the livestock at two of the four farms where FMD was detected had been destroyed. He added that culling will start at the other two farms on Tuesday and finish, hopefully, by the weekend.

He said 60,000 blood tests had been conducted at 749 farms, all of which were negative for FMD. He added that work is underway to determine how the virus entered Hungary.

Kristóf Gál, a spokesman for the National Police Headquarters (ORFK), said the closure of several crossings along the Austrian border meant long waits at the remaining crossings. He advised travellers to check the police.hu website for the latest information on border crossings with Austria and Slovakia.

Because of the foot-and-mouth disease affecting cloven-footed ungulates, vehicles over 7.5 tonnes are being disinfected, particularly in view of the restrictions and controls in place.

Decontamination points in Hungary

Disinfection of vehicles is underway at several on- and off-ramps of the M1 motorway, at the border crossing points of Hegyeshalom and Rajka, and temporary traffic congestion may occur, police said.

Decontamination points have been set up at the junctions listed below:

M1 motorway – Hegyeshalom – junction with the roundabout at junction 168;

M1 motorway – Hegyeshalom – exit to the roundabout junction at junction 168;

M1 motorway – Mosonújhely – road 8417 towards Lébény at km 35+170;

M1 motorway – Mosonújhely – road 8417 towards main road 1 at km 34+510;

M1 motorway main road 86 – Mosonmagyaróvár – Mosonmagyaróvár to Mosonmagyaróvár;

M1 motorway main road 86 – Mosonmagyaróvár – exit from Mosonmagyaróvár;

M1 motorway – Hegyeshalom border crossing;

M15 motorway – Rajka border crossing;

Highway 14 – Vámosszabadin;

main road 15 – Rajka;

road 1409 – at Dunacsúny;

Hegyeshalom at the border;

Levél on the access roads to the municipality of Levél;

Darnózseli access roads;

Dunakiliti access roads.

As we wrote earlier, Austria shuts down 21 border crossings with Hungary