Calf farms are concerned about the possible presence of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Calves have arrived at 125 farms in the Netherlands from Brandenburg, Germany, where FMD was diagnosed in three dead water buffalos. The veal farm of the Gelmers-Pierik family in Dwingeloo is one of those companies.
Larissa Pierik’s state of mind does not suffer from the situation. “No, we don’t worry. We don’t let ourselves be fooled. For the same money, there is nothing to worry about.”
Last weekend the message came from the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). This will further investigate 125 farms with imported calves. At least 3,600 calves appear to have been transported to our country from the ‘infected’ state of Brandenburg. 527 arrived at Gelmers-Pierik last Tuesday.
The Dwingelder calf farm has not yet received any notification from the NVWA. “I already expected that,” says Pierik. Until then we have to wait and see. “Of course we are already taking precautions. People do not enter the stable who have no business being there. We also pay attention to clothing and footwear to prevent spread.”
Conditions such as those at the beginning of this century are certainly not yet in line with expectations, says LTO Noord chairman Dirk Bruins. “Although we are vigilant, because we want to prevent a situation like in 2001 at all times.”
Bruins is referring to the foot and mouth crisis of more than twenty years ago, in which almost 270,000 animals were (preventively) culled from 2,500 livestock farms. Cows in particular suffered from FMD, with symptoms such as painful blisters on the legs, udders and in the mouth.
Agriculture Minister Femke Wiersma (BBB) has now taken measures to prevent a possible foot and mouth outbreak. The minister has, among other things, announced a ban on the removal of veal calves. Animals for slaughter are excluded from this.
The measures are “out of precaution”, Bruins explains. According to him, there is no panic mood. “Nowadays we can monitor and trace everything. The whereabouts of the animals that come in are known. Nothing peeps through the air anymore. Lessons have been learned from the past.” The NVWA is now conducting research at the farms where the imported calves are kept.
Wiersma also does not yet fear ‘contaminated’ companies in the Netherlands. “There is currently no reason or suspicion that there is a suspicious situation at a company in the Netherlands.”