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Livestock Associations Turn to President Over Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Published March 5, 2026, 17:10
Livestock Associations Turn to President Over Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Livestock associations are turning to the President of the Republic to address the issue of foot-and-mouth disease, following the detection of a new case in Dromolaxia and the reactions of producers to the culling of animals. At an emergency meeting, it was decided to submit a joint memorandum to the President, requesting his intervention to discuss the matter with the EU and avoid the mass culling of animals. Livestock farmers express their disagreement with the practice of culling all animals in a unit where a case is detected, arguing that this will lead to the eradication of the livestock population of Cyprus. They point out that there are specificities in Cyprus, such as the distance between livestock farms, that must be taken into account. They also express concern about the import of animal feed from Turkey into the occupied territories, as well as the different handling of the issue in the occupied areas, where the slaughter of animals was not required despite the sending of vaccines from the EU. They are asking for an exception for units that have been vaccinated, with systematic monitoring and slaughter of only infected animals. Despite the concerns, veterinary services insist that the measures they are implementing are based on specific EU protocols, while so far the decrease in milk and dairy production is not significant.