Germany seeks aid for farmers after foot-and-mouth disease case

HAMBURG (Reuters) - Germany’s agriculture minister will seek financial aid for farmers hit by the impact of a case of foot-and-mouth disease on a farm in east Germany, the ministry said.

The country announced its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 40 years on Jan. 10 in a herd of water buffalo near Berlin in the Brandenburg region. That remains the only reported case so far.

The minister, Cem Oezdemir, said that containing the disease was top priority but he wished that “no farm should close because of foot-and-mouth disease.”

The country was seeking crisis aid for farmers from the EU and was also in talks with its finance ministry, he said.

Pig prices in the country have stabilised as fears subsided that foot-and-mouth disease would spread, while the EU has indicated that German meat and dairy product sales outside the region containing the case could continue.

Some emergency measures to restrict spread of the highly infectious disease, which poses no danger to humans, were lifted but quarantine zones remain in force.

Measures to contain the disease often involve bans on imports of meat and dairy products from affected countries. The UK, South Korea and Mexico imposed import bans on Germany, with the British decision causing pain to Germany’s livestock sector.

German animal disease research institute Friedrich Loeffler has said three months must pass without a new case before Germany can be regarded as foot-and-mouth free.

(Reporting by Michael Hogan, Editing by Bernadette Baum)