The highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease virus prevailed in 2001 among cloven-hoofed animals. Farms in Ee and Anjum were affected in Friesland. In the Veluwe Kootwijkerbroek, the farmers fiercely fought that there was FMD. The village was just as world news when the ME in 2001 hit with farmers who blocked the village. They did not want their cows, pigs, calves, goats and sheep to be cleared.
Not disproportionate
According to the court, the farmers, united in the MKZ Crisis Kootwijkerbroek foundation, have not been able to prove that errors were systematically made in the laboratory or that the samples that were examined in the laboratory were contaminated with other samples. As a result, the State has correctly established that there was contamination with FMD and that the farms could be cleared, first in a radius of 1 kilometer around the infected farm, later in a radius of 2 kilometers.
“No matter how drastic that decision was, it is not disproportionate,” the judge said. He found that the case took far too long and therefore awarded the farmers compensation.
FMD crisis
During the 2001 FMD crisis, 300,000 animals had to be killed in the Netherlands, Great Britain and France to prevent further spread.
The farmers reacted disappointed to the statement, but said they did not expect anything else. The verdict of the college puts an end to a very long-term process of truth-finding, says LTO Nederland.
“It was a terrible period for the affected farmers, their animals and their environment,” reacts the farmers ‘and gardeners’ interest group to the opinion about the culling of the animals at that time in Kootwijkerbroek.
“The verdict, however disappointing it may be for many farmers in Kootwijkerbroek, does not detract from the unbridled commitment of the Kootwijkerbroek Research FMD crisis foundation to gain clarity about the events in 2001,” says LTO Nederland.
Response of Minister Schouten
The government must learn from the statement about culling as a result of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Kootwijkerbroek. Agriculture minister Carola Schouten therefore wants, among other things, a study of the processes within the laboratory concerned.
There must also be a study into the working methods of the Wageningen Bioveterinary Research laboratory, which at the time did research into the suspected FMD. “The laboratory is accredited and is constantly working on improving processes and methods, but I think it is important that their working method is independently assessed in an audit,” Schouten writes to the Lower House.
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