István Nagy, the agriculture minister, said measures to contain the spread of foot-and-mouth disease are working and no new outbreaks have been detected in Hungary.

After a meeting of an operative corps for animal health on Saturday, Minister Nagy said risks remained, pointing to a new outbreak in neighboring Slovakia, and stressed the need to comply with all restrictions.

Establishing the operative corps was necessary, he said, to ensure the involvement of all official bodies in the defence effort.

The operative corps decided on Saturday to establish police check-points for all traffic in and out of settlements affected by foot-and-mouth disease and to appoint a veterinarian for each settlement.

Nagy said a one-year moratorium on loan installments for farmers affected by foot-and-mouth disease was entering force.

He said that just six of the 30 border crossings with Austria were operating on Saturday and directed travellers to get information on ones that were open on the police.hu website.

Hungary detected a case of foot-and-mouth disease at a cattle farm in Kisbajcs, in the northwest of the country, on March 6. The disease was later identified in Slovakia, after which more outbreaks were discovered in Hungary, in Level, Darnozseli and Dunakiliti.

A ban on the transport of animals susceptible to the disease has been introduced in Győr-Moson-Sopron County.

Nagy said all animals had been destroyed at the farms in Kisbajcs and Level, and disinfection there was underway, while cattle at the farms in Darnozseli and Dunakiliti were being vaccinated to reduce the spread of the disease. Culling the 3,500 head on those farms will take a longer period of time, he added.

Nagy said authorities in Hungary were working closely with their counterparts in Slovakia. He also acknowledged the work of the Hungarian defence forces and the police in efforts to contain the spread of the disease.