Four experts of the EU Commission’s veterinary emergency team have arrived on the island for an on-site visit and further investigation into the outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease in two livestock units in the north, the veterinary services said on Saturday.

“We had a meeting with them just now, we discussed the incident. They will go to the occupied territories and investigate, to see what the Turkish Cypriots will tell them about the measures they took,” veterinary services director Christodoulos Pipis said.

The team arrived in Cyprus at the request of the veterinary service on Friday and are expected to brief the authorities over their findings on Sunday.

“From there on we will see with the European Commission how we will handle the situation,” he said.  

Although the experts will pay a site-visit to the facilities in the north, the EU Commission’s experts do not have the role of an inspector, Pipis emphasised.

“They come in the context of helping to properly manage the incident that is occurring in the affected member state,” he said.

The Cyprus Turkish veterinarians’ association on Monday said that a first outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease was detected at a farm in the Famagusta district village of Ayios Sergios .

Assuring that “all necessary measures will be taken and implemented”, the association said that the animals would be quarantined and vaccinated, while the farm and other facilities would be disinfected and movement of the animals would be restricted.

On Tuesday, Ankara’s Foot and Mouth Research Institute confirmed further cases in with four animals testing positive for the disease at a livestock unit in Lapithos in the north.

The north’s ‘agriculture minister’ Huseyin Cavus said that the area has since been quarantined, with movement of the animals being forbidden.

He announced that approximately 13,000 animals including cattle, sheep and goats would be vaccinated in to protect the animals and prevent the further spreading of the disease.

While no outbreak of the disease has been confirmed in the bases or in the south so far, the Bases on Friday announced that precautionary disinfection measures have been introduced at the Pergamos and Strovilia crossing points to reduce the risk of a potential spread of the disease.

The foot-and-mouth disease is a viral disease which can affect cattle, pigs, goats and sheep. Infected animals mostly recover but are likely to lose weight and be in a weak state, which leads to reduced milk and meat production.

Although highly contagious among animals, foot-and mouth disease is not harmful for humans.