Hungary suggests possible 'biological attack' linked to foot-and-mouth outbreak
BUDAPEST: Hungary suggested on Thursday a "biological attack" as a possible source of the country's first foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in more than half a century, which has triggered border closures and the mass slaughter of cattle in the northwest.
Hungary reported a first case of foot-and-mouth disease in over 50 years on a cattle farm in the northwest near the border with Austria and Slovakia last month, the World Organisation for Animal Health said, citing Hungarian authorities.
Thousands of cattle had to be culled as the landlocked country tries to contain the outbreak, while Austria and Slovakia have closed dozens of border crossings, after the disease also appeared in the southern part of Slovakia.
"At this stage, we can say that it cannot be ruled out that the virus was not of natural origin, we may be dealing with an artificially engineered virus," Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas told a media briefing.
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