Cyprus’ Agriculture Ministry has approved compensation of nearly 2 million euros for livestock farmers whose herds were hit by foot-and-mouth disease in recent months.
Farmers said they were satisfied with the latest update they received, which indicated that payment had been completed in the last four cases that had been under review.
“The latest information we had from official sources yesterday was that the repayment of the last four cases that were under investigation has moved forward, and so we expect the money to appear in farmers’ accounts from Monday,” said Neophytos Neophytou, president of the farmers’ group The Voice of Livestock Farmers.
Concern persists in the sector, however. Although the period of mass culls and intensive sampling in previous months has passed, laboratory tests for possible new cases are continuing.
Farmers are in talks with the Veterinary Services, seeking an end to further culls. They are also asking that additional tests be carried out to determine whether an active virus is present before any decisions are made.
“Our position from the start was no to culls, because animals can carry antibodies. But any animal that has the active virus should be culled,” Neophytou said. “We are now at the stage where we want this clarified and second tests carried out for the active virus, so that we don’t kill animals unjustly.”