300 sheep to be slaughtered in Cyprus over suspected foot-and-mouth

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Up to 300 sheep are to be culled Sunday after preliminary tests from an EU-accredited lab indicated "strong suspicions" of foot-and-mouth infection in a herd on the eastern Mediterranean island, the agriculture minister said. The state veterinary service would start culling "between 270 and 300 sheep" for immediate burial, Agriculture Minister Fotis Fotiou said after meeting government vets in the southern coastal town of Larnaca. The animals are from two farms in close proximity to each other outside Dromolaxia, west of the town. A 3-kilometer exclusion zone set up around the suspected farms will be extended to 10 kilometers in line with European Union rules, he said. Such a move would place up to 150,000 livestock under quarantine, including cows, pigs and goats.