Farmers await compensation, restocking after FMD

Seven farmers have yet to receive full compensation for losses caused by this year’s foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, while delays have also been reported in restocking affected farms, head of the Voice of Livestock Breeders Neofytos Neofytou said on Friday. Neofytou told the Cyprus News Agency that four farmers had received no compensation, while three others had been paid only up to 15 per cent of what they were owed. Three other farms, he added, were expecting to begin receiving replacement animals from September 1, although concerns had been raised over delays in the process and a requirement by the Veterinary Services that the animals must not have been vaccinated. On Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Christos Senekkis said more than 100 livestock farms where animals had been culled as a result of the FMD outbreak had already received compensation, with only a handful of cases remaining outstanding. He said the compensation process was expected to be completed within the coming days. Neofytou said his organisation had sent a letter to the agriculture minister requesting a meeting to discuss compensation and the next steps. He claimed that communication with the Veterinary Services was “difficult” and that no clear answers had been given regarding full compensation and resuming operations. Referring to cases where the number of animals culled had been brought into question, Neofytou said some data may have been wrong, but “the animals were no stolen, they were purchased, they were owned by the farmers and were part of their property.” On regenerating farms, Neofytou said three farms had been informed that as of September 1 they would be able to receive replacement animals. Each farm will be receiving around ten animals for a trial period of up to 20 days, after which they will be tested for foot and mouth. Neofytou said this was impractical, as most of the farmers had vaccinated their herds and unvaccinated animals were hard to find. He added that no explanation had been given for the demand that the replacement animals be unvaccinated and wondered why the replacement process was beginning five months after the culling procedure. The protocol, he explained, provided for replacements to start 42 days after the culling had taken place and farms had been cleaned and disinfected. “In our view, at this stage a full population of animals should be introduced instead of starting the replacement process now,” he said. Neofytou added that three weeks ago, at a meeting at the agriculture ministry, a senior Veterinary Services officer had said the farmers meeting the preconditions for resuming operations would be informed. This, Neofytou pointed out, should have happened a fortnight ago, and he demanded clear answers from the authorities and immediate action. On Wednesday, Senekkis had said the government was awaiting a study by the scientific committee headed by Stavros Malas on the restructuring of the sector, with the aim of allowing livestock farming to fully resume on a more resilient and sustainable basis. Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Dr Dimitris Epaminondas, a member of the epidemiological team and president of the Cyprus Veterinary Association, said one of the key issues being examined was the close proximity of livestock farms to one another, which creates weaknesses in biosecurity. The way livestock units are located would therefore have to be reconsidered as part of the sector’s reconstruction, he added. Epaminondas had previously confirmed that there had been no further cullings, with the number of culled animals remaining at approximately 80,000. FMD first broke out on the island in February 2026.