Sawt Falasteen - Germany reports foot-and-mouth disease in water buffalo

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral infection that is not dangerous to humans but which affects cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, including sheep and pigs.

Symptoms include fever and blisters in the mouth and near the hoof.

The cases in the eastern state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, were confirmed by the federal government's Institute for Animal Health.

The outbreak affected a group of 14 animals, three of which had died, Brandenburg's environment ministry said.

The local district had ordered the rest of the herd to be culled to contain the potential spread of the virus, the ministry said.

Food and agriculture ministry spokesman Michael Hauck said it was Germany's first outbreak since 1988.

"Exclusion zones three kilometres (about two miles) wide and surveillance zones 10 kilometres wide have been set up," Hauck told a regular government press conference.

- Crisis meeting -

Following the confirmation of the outbreak, federal Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir convened a crisis committee meeting with state officials for Tuesday to discuss their response.

"Now it is a matter of finding out as quickly as possible which route the virus took" to reach Germany, Ozdemir said in a statement.

It was currently not possible to say whether other livestock had been infected with the virus, his ministry said.

The state of Brandenburg prohibited the movement of "transport of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and camelids" for 72 hours while checks were carried out.

The transport ban would also apply to "carcasses or parts of these animals and manure", the ministry said, with the order coming into force on Saturday.

In previous outbreaks in Europe, more than 2,000 animals were culled to control the disease in the UK after an outbreak in 2007, according to the British government.

In 2011, hundreds were culled in Bulgaria after an outbreak there.

Water buffalo have been in Germany since the 1990s, according to the Berlin state government, farmed for their milk and meat and used to control grass growth on fields.

T.Samara--SF-PST