AVIS - Foot and Mouth disease

Disease Prevention

Contingency Plans

An essential element of being ready for an outbreak of FMD is to have in place well prepared and rehearsed contingency plans. This is particularly true for FMD-free countries where there may have been no actual experience of FMD outbreaks for years or even decades.

In 1997, the European Union set up a number of working groups to review the effectiveness of community legislation relating to FMD and to recommend proposals for change. One of the groups considered in detail the issue of contingency plans and came up with a document that can serve as model for any FMD-free country.