Becik and Caucik Question Slaughter of Healthy Cattle

Bratislava, March 27 (TASR) - House committee for agriculture and the environment vice-chair Branislav Becik (Voice-SD) and committee member Marian Caucik (KDH) on Thursday called for a revision of the decision to cull healthy livestock in the foot-and-mouth contagion zone. Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD) declared at the committee session that he's leaving the issuing of preventive measures regarding the contagion to experts. He pointed to a high concentration of large herds in the affected region of southern Slovakia. "No order states that we need to slaughter healthy livestock as part of eliminating the affected zones," underlined Becik, who doesn't think that such a measure is right. In Caucik's view, slaughtering all farm animals within a three-kilometre radius of ground zero is unorthodox. "On what legal basis has such a measure been issued anyway?" he asked. "Let's not underestimate this. I'm not making the decisions. The decisions are being made by experts. We're here to manage this," claimed Takac, adding that 54 farm animals have been slaughtered outside of the affected farms. The minister also confirmed that the type of foot-and-mouth virus that has emerged in Slovakia is the same as the one present in Hungary. Takac added that the disease has been confirmed at four farms in southern Slovakia and that no suspicions that the virus has spread further have been registered so far. mf/df