In this file photo taken on April 29, 2014 water buffalos stand in water on the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island), a river island in the river Havel, in Berlin. Photo by HAUKE-CHRISTIAN DITTRICH / DPA / AFP
Berlin: Germany on Friday reported three cases of foot-and-mouth disease in water buffalo on a farm near Berlin, the country's first reported cases of the livestock disease since 1988.
Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral infection that is not dangerous to humans but which affects hooved animals and some other mammals including sheeps.
Symptoms include fever and blisters in the mouth and near the hoof.
The infections were identified in the eastern state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, a state spokesman told AFP, adding that they had been confirmed by the national government's Institute for Animal Health.
Bild daily reported that the three infected animals had died, and that the rest of the herd of 11 water buffalo would be culled.
Food and agriculture ministry spokesman Michael Hauck confirmed it was Germany's first outbreak since 1988.
"Exclusion zones three kilometres (about two miles) wide and surveillance zones 10 kilometres wide have been set up," he said.
In previous outbreaks in Europe, more than 2,000 animals were culled to control the disease in the UK after an outbreak in 2007, according to the British government.
In 2011, hundreds were culled in Bulgaria after an outbreak there.
Water buffalo have been in Germany since the 1990s, according to the Berlin state government, farmed for their milk and meat and used to control grass growth on fields.
