The health safety of milk and dairy products from large dairy processing plants in Slovakia is guaranteed for consumers even with foot-and-mouth disease (SLAK, ed: in Slovak - slintačke a krívačke). This was stated on Tuesday by the president of the Slovak Dairy Association (SMZ), Marián Šolty, who was accompanied by the chairperson of the Slovak Association of Primary Milk Producers (SZPM), Alexander Pastorek. According to Šolty, milk is pasteurized in dairy plants, but the use of unpasteurized milk from small farms and milk vending machines can be risky.
"We are doing everything we can to ensure that milk production safety is truly ensured, from the moment it reaches the milk tank pipe, right from the farmers. Our livestock workers ensure that the food we supply to the processing industry, and which ultimately reaches consumers' tables, is truly harmless and safe. We are paying all our attention to this," explained Pastorek. According to him, the loss of milk production should not cause shortages of any milk products in the Slovak Republic.
According to Šolty, milk processors also have strict hygiene measures in place when processing or importing raw cow's milk into processing plants. "We have taken measures to ensure that no one other than employees and people who have work to do there has access to the plants. All milk circulating on the Slovak market is pasteurized," explained Šolty.
"The products that reach the table, from Slovak milk produced by our farmers, processed in Slovak processing plants, is therefore safe," he underlined.
"So far, the number of cows that have to be culled indicates that the loss of milk production could reach around 55 million liters. That is somewhere between six and seven percent of annual production. We hope that this number could be final for producers and processors," added Šolty. According to him, the loss of production is on the level of the year-on-year fluctuation of Slovak milk production, which is usually at the level of three to four percent.
On Wednesday morning before the Government’s weekly session Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Richard Takáč (Smer-SD) announced that the presence of two new epicenters of foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed in Hungary: in the villages of Dunakiliti and Darnozseli.
Because of this, the minister called on farmers to comply with all measures in order to stop the further spreading of disease. He detailed that slaughtered cattle from Plavecky Stvrtok will be liquidated at a facility in Zilina and buried in as-of-yet unspecified location.
"All locations currently at disposal are completely safe in terms of health protection and environmental concerns. Had we been acting like brutes, we would have slaughtered and buried the cadavers at the place where they were infected," added Takáč.
In other foot and mouth disease news, the Bratislava Zoo is preparing for the possibility of full quarantine as part of measures against the disease, zoo director Matej Dobsovic stated on social media.
The director mentioned last week that strict measures to prevent infection are in place at the zoo. Some of the measures are even stricter than the ones in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The zoo estimates monthly revenue losses of between €250,000 and €350,000, and if the zoo were to be closed for four months, the losses could reach up to one million. Bratislava Zoo, along with other zoos in Slovakia, will seek compensation from the government.
Bratislava Zoo has been closed since March 21 as part of national preventive measures. It was originally scheduled to open its 65th season on March 22. In this regard, the zoo stated that after the flood in September, it's now facing another major challenge, a dangerous disease that threatens many rare species. "We could lose all of them if the disease spreads inside the gates of our zoo," it warned.
Source: TASR
