Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps which are being taken at EU level to address the issue of a foot and mouth disease outbreak, involving a new viral strain in Syria, Gaza and Egypt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42200/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In March 2012, a serotype of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was detected in Egypt and Libya which had not previously been detected outside sub-Saharan Africa. This serotype, known as SAT2, has caused a large scale epidemic of FMD in Egypt and Libya, leading to severe economic losses and threatening food security in the region due to reduced availability of meat.

A single outbreak of the Egyptian SAT2 virus was detected in the Gaza Strip (Palestinian Autonomous Territories) in April. Since April, no further spread of SAT2 FMD has been reported outside Egypt and Libya.

The European Union supports actions to address this issue through DG SANCO funding of the FAO European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD Commission) and has taken a number of emergency actions in response including:

- A series of rapid assessment missions to Egypt in March and April which advised on actions which could be taken to immediately address the situation.

- A series of training workshops in the laboratory diagnosis of FMD, and SAT2 in particular, for laboratory technicians from Egypt, Libya, PAT (Gaza Strip), PAT (West Bank), Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, Lebanon.

- Provision of reagents and supplies to enable laboratory diagnosis of FMD, and SAT2 in particular, to the above mentioned countries plus Jordan, Iraq and Syria.

- Coordination of a regional response strategy including risk-based surveillance for early detection of SAT2 spread and vaccination strategies, covering Egypt, Israel, PAT (Gaza Strip), Jordan (at a workshop hosted by Cyprus) and Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania (at a workshop hosted by Morocco), in coordination with the FAO, the OIE, REMESA (the Mediterranean States Union) and UMA (Arabic Maghreb Union).

- Ongoing direct technical support to Egypt and Libya in the form of expert missions, in coordination with FAO.

The civil instability in Syria has made it difficult to accurately assess the FMD situation there. EuFMD Commission has however provided FMD diagnostic kits to the Syrian authorities and is supporting heightened surveillance actions through providing ongoing support to neighbouring Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, as well as Turkey and Israel which are members of the EuFMD Commission.

In order to improve the ability of EU member states to respond effectively to the threat posed by FMD, the EuFMD Commission has a continuing training programme through which state veterinarians are trained in FMD outbreak investigation and control implementation. Five veterinary inspectors from my Department have undergone such training and my Department has also been able to share FMD expertise. Training material produced by my Department for improving bio-security in response to FMD outbreaks has been used by the EuFMD Commission in this training programme.

It is worth noting that although SAT2 is a novel threat to Europe, it is not the only FMD threat, as other serotypes also pose a risk of incursion. FMD is endemic in Anatolian Turkey, the Middle East and Egypt and Libya. There have been several major regional epidemics in North Africa and West Eurasia in recent years and FMD threats to Europe are continually re-assessed. A vaccine bank with several strains of FMD vaccine available is maintained within the EU.