Cattle Culling at Baka Farm Completed on Wednesday Evening

Baka, March 27 (TASR) - The process of culling the cattle at a farm in the village of Baka in the district of Dunajska Streda (Trnava region), which has been hit by foot-and-mouth disease, was completed on Wednesday (March 26) evening, Zoltan Pivoda, the general director of Exata Group, to whose portfolio the farm belongs, has told TASR, adding that the farm will now be disinfected. "The process of culling our herd ended at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, when the last lorry with carcasses left our farm. The entire farm will now be disinfected, and we'll wait for further instructions from the respective state authorities. We definitely want to resume breeding," stated Pivoda. However, the farm workers must take a break now, said Pivoda. "Some of them spent seven days on the farm and are completely exhausted. We're all exhausted. Not just physically, but also mentally," he added. The herd in Baka consisted of some 1,060 dairy cows, 50 older heifers and 220 calves. The farm produced 12 million litres of milk per year before the outbreak of the disease. The presence of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed at livestock farms in four villages in southern Slovakia on Friday - Medvedov, Narad, Baka and Luc na Ostrove. The disease probably reached Slovakia from Hungary. It is a serious, highly contagious and febrile viral disease among livestock with significant economic impacts. The government has declared a state of emergency in response to the disease covering the entire territory of Slovakia. ko/df