Hungary confirms foot-and-mouth disease outbreak at fifth cattle farm
BUDAPEST, April 17 (Reuters) - Hungary confirmed that a fifth cattle farm was infected with foot-and-mouth disease in the village of Rabapordany, where 600 cows will be culled, Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy said in a Facebook video on Thursday.
Last month, Hungary reported its first case of foot-and-mouth disease for over 50 years on a cattle farm in the northwest near the border with Austria and Slovakia.
Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
a day ago
- Daily Record
'I donated my mum's body to Alzheimer's research instead she was blown to pieces'
Her son said 'she was strapped in a chair, and a detonation took place underneath her' One Arizona man thought he was donating his mother's body to science after her harrowing descent in Alzheimer's - only to discover he had been sent her cremated arm before the rest of her body was strapped to a chair and blown up. Jim Stauffer cared for his mother Doris throughout her illness before she died at 74 in 2013. He decided to donate her brain to science hoping to contribute to a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The family contacted Biological Resource Center, a local company that brokered the donation of human bodies for research. Within the hour, BRC dispatched a driver to collect Doris. Jim signed a form authorizing medical research on his mother's body. Ten days later, Jim received his mother's cremated remains - but it turns out her ashes were made up of a singular arm sawn off from her body. The rest of her corpse had met a violent fate. Doris' brain never was used for Alzheimer's research. Instead, her body became part of an Army experiment to measure damage caused by roadside bombs, reports the Irish Star. Internal BRC and military records show that at least 20 other bodies were also used in the blast experiments without permission of the donors or their relatives, a violation of U.S. Army policy. Jim had also ticked a box specifically banning any kind of experiments on Doris. BRC sold donated bodies like Stauffer's for $5,893 each. Jim said: "She was strapped in a chair, and a detonation took place underneath her to get an idea of what the human body goes through when a vehicle is hit by an IED. There was wording on this paperwork about performing tests that may involve explosions, and we said, 'No'." Army officials involved in the project said they never received the consent forms that donors or their families had signed. Rather, the officials said they relied on assurances from BRC that families had agreed to let the bodies be used in such experiments. BRC, which sold more than 20,000 parts from some 5,000 human bodies over a decade, is no longer in business. Its former owner, Stephen Gore, pleaded guilty to fraud in 2022. In a statement to Reuters, Gore said that he always tried to honor the wishes of donors and sent consent forms when researchers requested them. Jim said of Gore "He didn't care about the families, he didn't care about the people." Jim learned of the fate of his mother's body from a Reuters reporter and "curled his lip in anger and clutched his wife Lisa's arm. "We did right," Lisa reassured him. "They just did not honor our wishes." No federal law regulates body brokers like BRC, and no U.S. government agency monitors what happens to cadavers pledged for use in medical education and research. "It is not illegal to sell a whole body or the parts of a body for research or education," said University of Iowa law professor Sheldon F. Kurtz, who helped modify the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which has been adopted by 46 states. Although the act was updated in 2006, Kurtz said, "the issue of whole bodies or body parts for research or education never came up during our discussions." Since then, the body trade has become big business. Only one state, New York, keeps detailed records on the industry. According to the most recent data available, companies that did business in New York shipped at least 100,000 body parts across the country from 2011 to 2014. Reuters obtained the data, which have never been made public, from the state's health department. "I feel foolish," said Jim. "I'm not a trusting person, but, you have no idea this is going on." Military officials said they took BRC's word that permission had been given. Records show at least 20 more bodies were blown up without consent.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
'I donated mum's body to Alzheimer's research what happened next was horrifying'
Her son said 'she was strapped in a chair, and a detonation took place underneath her' One Arizona man thought he was donating his mother's body to science after her harrowing descent in Alzheimer's - only to discover he had been sent her cremated arm before the rest of her body was strapped to a chair and blown up. Jim Stauffer cared for his mother Doris throughout her illness before she died at 74 in 2013. He decided to donate her brain to science hoping to contribute to a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The family contacted Biological Resource Center, a local company that brokered the donation of human bodies for research. Within the hour, BRC dispatched a driver to collect Doris. Jim signed a form authorising medical research on his mother's body. Ten days later, Jim received his mother's cremated remains - but it turns out her ashes were made up of a singular arm sawn off from her body. The rest of her corpse had met a violent fate. Doris' brain never was used for Alzheimer's research. Instead, her body became part of an Army experiment to measure damage caused by roadside bombs, the Irish Star reports. Internal BRC and military records show that at least 20 other bodies were also used in the blast experiments without permission of the donors or their relatives, a violation of U.S. Army policy. Jim had also ticked a box specifically banning any kind of experiments on Doris. BRC sold donated bodies like Stauffer's for $5,893 each. Jim said: "She was strapped in a chair, and a detonation took place underneath her to get an idea of what the human body goes through when a vehicle is hit by an IED. There was wording on this paperwork about performing tests that may involve explosions, and we said, 'No'." Army officials involved in the project said they never received the consent forms that donors or their families had signed. Rather, the officials said they relied on assurances from BRC that families had agreed to let the bodies be used in such experiments. BRC, which sold more than 20,000 parts from some 5,000 human bodies over a decade, is no longer in business. Its former owner, Stephen Gore, pleaded guilty to fraud in 2022. In a statement to Reuters, Gore said that he always tried to honor the wishes of donors and sent consent forms when researchers requested them. Jim said of Gore "He didn't care about the families, he didn't care about the people." Jim learned of the fate of his mother's body from a Reuters reporter and "curled his lip in anger and clutched his wife Lisa's arm. "We did right," Lisa reassured him. "They just did not honor our wishes." No federal law regulates body brokers like BRC, and no U.S. government agency monitors what happens to cadavers pledged for use in medical education and research. "It is not illegal to sell a whole body or the parts of a body for research or education," said University of Iowa law professor Sheldon F. Kurtz, who helped modify the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which has been adopted by 46 states. Although the act was updated in 2006, Kurtz said, "the issue of whole bodies or body parts for research or education never came up during our discussions." Since then, the body trade has become big business. Only one state, New York, keeps detailed records on the industry. According to the most recent data available, companies that did business in New York shipped at least 100,000 body parts across the country from 2011 to 2014. Reuters obtained the data, which have never been made public, from the state's health department. "I feel foolish," said Jim. "I'm not a trusting person, but, you have no idea this is going on." Military officials said they took BRC's word that permission had been given. Records show at least 20 more bodies were blown up without consent.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Reuters
Foot-and-mouth disease contained in Hungary, farm minister says
BUDAPEST, June 6 (Reuters) - Hungary has successfully contained an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, leading to the lifting of European Union restrictions, the country's farm minister Istvan Nagy told local news site in an interview published on Friday. Hungary reported its first case of foot-and-mouth disease for over 50 years in March, leading to infections in five farms near its border with Slovakia and Austria and triggering border closures and the mass slaughter of cattle. "There hasn't been a single new outbreak on the farms for over a month and a half. Disinfection work is ongoing, cleaning is happening at full speed, we're preparing for repopulation at all the sites ... the virus is gone," Nagy said. The farm minister also said that the European Union was lifting restrictions introduced after the outbreak. The disease, which poses no danger to humans, mostly affects cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals like swine, sheep and goats, causing fever and mouth blisters. Outbreaks often lead to trade restrictions and livestock culls. Authorities were still investigating the origins of the outbreak and testing several theories, Nagy said. He reiterated that terrorism had not been ruled out. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff in May suggested a "biological attack" as a possible source of the outbreak, without giving further details. Restrictions have also been eased in Slovakia since May as the country has not seen any fresh outbreaks in recent months. In the Czech Republic, where no cases were reported, remaining measures to prevent the spread across its borders were due to end on Friday.
