Cyprus maintains foot-and-mouth disease control with successful vaccination campaign and no new cases

Cyprus’s veterinary association reports steady progress in controlling foot-and-mouth disease, with vaccination efforts nearing completion and no recent case surges, despite ongoing investigations into remaining outbreaks.

Cyprus’s veterinary association said on Monday that foot-and-mouth disease remains under control, with no new confirmed cases and more than 800 samples so far testing negative apart from the two known outbreaks in Avgorou and Pentakomo, which remain under investigation.

Demetris Epaminondas, the association’s head, told the Cyprus Mail that the situation was “very good” overall. He said vaccination efforts were advancing across the island, with completion in Famagusta at 100 per cent, almost all doses administered in Larnaca and Nicosia, and Limassol at a “very good stage”. Paphos is lagging behind, he added, but is expected to finish its programme by the end of November.

Epaminondas also said there had been no further cullings, leaving the total number of animals destroyed at about 80,000.

The disease first emerged in Cyprus in February, prompting emergency action by the authorities and restrictions on livestock movement and commercial trade. The European Commission later classified the whole island as a further restricted zone, while also deploying veterinary experts and sending more than one million vaccine doses in total, according to EU and Cypriot officials.