Animal transports banned in German region after foot-and-mouth disease detected

BERLIN — Animal transports were banned in a state surrounding Berlin on Saturday and the capital's two zoos closed as a precaution after foot-and-mouth disease was detected in a buffalo herd just outside the city, Germany's first outbreak for more than 35 years.

Authorities in Brandenburg state, which surrounds Berlin, said on Friday that a farmer found three of a 14-strong herd of water buffalo dead in Hoenow, just outside the capital's city limits. Germany's national animal health institute confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease had been detected in samples from one animal, and the rest of the herd was slaughtered. It wasn't clear how the animals were infected.

A 72-hour ban on transporting cows, pigs, sheep, goats and other animals such as camels and llamas in Brandenburg went into force Saturday. Berlin's two zoos closed starting Saturday as a preventive measure. Their management noted in a statement that while the virus isn't dangerous to humans, it can stick to their clothing and be transmitted.

Authorities said that around 200 pigs at a farm in Ahrensfelde, near where the outbreak was detected, would be slaughtered as a precaution.

Foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus that infects cattle, sheep, goats, swine and other cloven-hoofed animals. While death rates are typically low, the disease can make animals ill with fever, decreased appetite, excessive drooling, blisters and other symptoms.

The virus spreads easily through contact and airborne transmission and can quickly infect entire herds. People can spread the disease though things like farming equipment, shoes, clothing and vehicle tires that have come into contact with the virus.

The last outbreak in Germany was in 1988 and the last in Europe in 2011, according to Germany's animal health institute.