According to the Dutch Agriculture Ministry, the Netherlands is now free of food-and-mouth and all remaining restrictions will be ended at midnight on June 25, reports Reuters. The ministry confirmed the 26th and final case over two months ago on April 22 in the centre of the country, where all but three of the cases were found. Over 260,000 animals at around 2,900 farms were culled and strict transport restrictions adopted to curb the spread of the disease after the first outbreaks were reported on March 21. The Central Planning Bureau estimated last month that the highly infectious disease would cost the Netherlands about $1.1bn and shave 0.3 percentage points off economic growth this year. Source: Reuters
