Poland has imposed strict veterinary checks on its southern border as foot-and-mouth disease spread among livestock in Slovakia and Hungary, raising concern that the virus could cross into a country that has long been free of the disease. Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski told parliament that the controls were already in place at 10 border crossings, with disinfectant gates, mats and 24-hour veterinary duty in operation.
The government moved quickly. Siekierski said Poland adopted regulations tightening the border before the European Commission had issued its own implementing decisions, which allowed the country to start the checks early in several southern voivodeships: Podkarpackie, Opolskie, Silesia and Małopolska. The objective is to stop infection before it reaches domestic herds, not after it has already spread. Veterinary services are working with the Border Guard, police and firefighters, and animals that entered Poland from Slovakia are being monitored and tested.
The urgency comes from the regional outbreak. Hungary has now had additional outbreaks, with the disease affecting nearly 8,000 animals there, while Slovakia has reported its fifth outbreak and declared a state of emergency nationwide. Earlier in the year, German veterinary authorities reported the first case of foot-and-mouth disease in 37 years, at a farm about 70 kilometers from Poland's border. Taken together, those developments show that the threat is not confined to one country or one border crossing.
Poland's laboratory capacity is also being expanded. Siekierski said the Zduńska Wola laboratory is operating around the clock and is conducting more than 1,000 tests a week. A new laboratory being built in Puławy is expected to raise diagnostic capacity to 10,000 tests a week. That matters because foot-and-mouth disease moves fast, and testing speed can determine whether a suspected case becomes a full-scale outbreak.
The disease itself is highly contagious among animals. If an outbreak is confirmed on a farm, all animals there must be culled. It also affects wildlife. For Poland, which is currently regarded as free of foot-and-mouth disease, the danger is economic as much as veterinary. A single incursion could lead to culls, movement restrictions and trade disruption. That is why the minister urged farmers not to buy animals or feed at unrealistically low prices, warning that bargain deals can hide biosecurity risk.
Siekierski also stressed that the border response is not symbolic. He said veterinary inspectors are present day and night, and that the system is designed to monitor animal movement and prevent any infected stock from slipping through. His message was that the threat from neighboring outbreaks is real, but that Poland still has time to keep the virus out if the controls remain tight and farmers cooperate.
The event date therefore marks a preventive mobilisation rather than a domestic outbreak. Poland has not reported foot-and-mouth disease in the country, but the risk from its neighbors has been taken seriously enough to bring in a layered response of checkpoints, laboratory testing and cross-agency coordination. That is the practical meaning of the new border regime: to keep a regional animal-health crisis from becoming a Polish one.
