Germany regains FMD-free status: Disease successfully contained
World Health Organisation for Animal Health confirms creation of a containment zone. Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir: “A clear message to our trade partners.”
With effect from today (12 March 2025), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has reinstated foot-and-mouth disease-free status for almost all of Germany. This follows an application by the Federal Ministry for Agriculture and Food (BMEL) to approve the creation of a containment zone, which the WOAH approved. The FMD-free status applies country-wide apart from the actual containment zone, for which both the suspension of FMD-free status and the requirement to implement certain FMD containment measures will remain in place until at least 11 April 2025.
As Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir explained: "Almost all of Germany is again FMD-free and the World Organisation for Animal Health has declared this in writing. Regaining our FMD-free status sends a clear message to our trade partners. Official WOAH confirmation provides an important basis for our talks with third countries and will benefit exports. I am confident that our international trade relations for the agricultural products involved will quickly normalise and that our producers will soon be able to start supplying their usual markets."
Receiving WOAH confirmation is a great achievement and means good news for our agriculture and food industry, and for a great many livestock farmers across the country. By working as one, we have managed to do this in record time, with everyone on the ground and in the Länder (state) and Federal governments joining forces to contain the disease. We owe this breakthrough to excellent collaboration and to the outstanding efforts of all those involved in the states of Brandenburg and Berlin, at the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health and at the BMEL. Their exceptional commitment to disease control deserves the highest recognition, and my personal thanks go to them all.