The total number of farms infected with foot and mouth disease in Cyprus has now risen to 101, the veterinary services department said on Saturday.

It said that following the latest round of testing, one more incidence of the disease at a sheep and goat farm within the bounds of the Dromolaxia and Meneou municipality, near Larnaca, has been detected, as well as one at a cattle farm in the Nicosia district village of Yeri, and one at a pig farm in the Nicosia district village of Paliometocho.

These findings bring the total number of infected units to 13 cattle farms, 86 sheep and goat farms, and two pig farms.

Additionally, the veterinary services department said that the culling of animals in both the Larnaca and Nicosia districts is ongoing, and that vaccination procedures are also underway.

In total, 73.5 per cent of cattle, 58.5 per cent of sheep and goats, and 94.7 per cent of pigs have been vaccinated thus far.

Newspaper Phileleftheros reported that the latest pig farm which has been found to be infected houses around 15,000 pigs. By European Union law, all will now have to be culled.

It also reported that investigations are underway to determine whether a third pig farm in Paliometocho has also been infected.

The first pig farm at which the disease was detected was home to 4,000 pigs, with veterinary services department director Sotiria Georgiadou having said that “all our efforts will now go to this specific pig farm, to ensure that these pigs are culled as quickly as possible”.

She insisted at the time that the spread of the virus to the pig farms is “not a failure”, and said that the movement of people around the island may have been the root cause of the spread of the infection to Paliometocho.

More than 30,000 animals have already been culled, with veterinary association chairman Demetris Epaminondas having said previously that there is “no less painful alternative” to culling when attempting to stem the spread of the disease.

“The killing of all animals in such cases is imposed by European legislation and there is no less painful alternative,” he said, before adding that European Union law on the matter is “particularly strict”.

He also stressed that vaccinations of animals cannot replace culling as a method of preventing the disease’s spread, as the vaccine’s aim is “to limit the transmissibility of the disease”.

“Even a vaccinated animal, if it is found to test positive, must be culled,” he said, before going on to say that animals can remain infectious for four to six months.

He added that allowing infected animals to live also entails the “risk that the virus will be transmitted further either by air, or by machinery, or in any other way which would affect other units”.

“That is why these extreme measures are being taken,” he said.