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You Made a Mess of Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Now You're Asking for More

Published February 25, 2026, 09:15
You Made a Mess of Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Now You're Asking for More

There is a pattern in this state. A triad, which appears in every crisis, in every disaster: Incompetence, haste, mismanagement. With foot-and-mouth disease drowning one after another the livestock units of Larnaca, the state proves once again that it has not learned absolutely anything. Crisis management does not begin when news bulletins are filled with catastrophic results. It begins when there are the first signs of danger. From mid-December, there were confirmed cases in the occupied territories. That is, in the same geographical area. In the same Cyprus. Unless we have forgotten that there is one Cyprus. And yet, we have once again reached the point of running around frantically to collect whatever we can. Because, from the result, either no substantial measures were taken or those that were taken were so hasty and inadequate that they remained ineffective announcements in files, which now, are filled with the details of the disaster. Where was the strict monitoring of the Green Line? Where were the checks for illegal trafficking of animals and feed? Where were the mandatory disinfection measures for vehicles at the checkpoints? Why was the entire occupied area not declared a contaminated zone earlier, based on the precautionary principle? If all this was done, why are we now counting the spread? If it was not done, who will be held accountable? Leaks suggest that the virus may have been transmitted via manure from the occupied territories. If true, the situation borders on the ridiculous. We are talking about a load. About volume. It is not a packet of cigarettes. It is not material that goes into a handbag. How did it pass? Who checked? What 'strict measures' worked so perfectly that no one noticed anything? When did this information reach the authorities? Why don't we have a clear picture yet? Is it so difficult to trace the route of such a load? Why hasn't the perpetrator been arrested yet? Have his premises been investigated? Did they find anything? If they knew he was doing this (as is leaking) why didn't they tie him up long ago? Or are they simply releasing information to muddy the waters? A series of agonizing questions. And, unfortunately, the authorities are not answering them… Even more revealing of the inadequacy was yesterday's image in Parliament. Livestock farmers complaining that even suits were requested by the officials of the Veterinary Services. That is, in a health crisis, the state service operates with borrowed equipment from the citizens it is supposed to control? This is not just weakness. It is, if the complaint is true, a mockery of a superficial European state. The director of the Veterinary Services, Christodoulos Pipis, invoked the fact that a country cannot proceed with vaccination without confirmed cases justifying an emergency intervention, to justify why preventive vaccination was not carried out. He tried, therefore, to prioritize the fact that, in the areas under the control of the Republic, there were no cases of foot-and-mouth disease. Confirmed…

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