Doctors and microbiologists are highly critical of the government’s approach to the Q fever epidemic sweeping the country’s goat farms, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.

They say the lack of action suggests the economic interests of goat farmers are more important than public health and that people are becoming ill unnecessarily, the paper says. It bases the article on tv programme Zembla.
Q fever is rampant in parts of Brabant, north Limburg and Gelderland and according to Trouw, at least six people have died and 2,200 people have developed the disease this year.
New epidemic
Q fever was rarely known among humans until 2007, when 168 cases were reported. Last year there were more than 1,000 instances in the Netherlands. So far this year, 55 goat farms are known to be infected.
The disease is spread by livestock which shed the bacteria in urine, faeces, birth products and milk.Q fever, which leads to spontaneous abortion in sheep and goats, causes flu-like symptoms in humans but can lead to lung infections.
Doctor Kees Verduin told the Volkskrant there is a big difference between the approach to Q fever and swine flu. With swine flu ‘we are told that we must take steps. But [with Q fever] we are told that we have to wait and do research,’ he said.
Intensive farming
In reaction to the tv report, farm minister Gerda Verburg said: ‘The government cannot just take drastic action. The approach must be effective and in proportion.’
At the end of last summer, Verburg announced all sheep and goat farms had to be tested for Q fever and animals from farms where the disease is found may not be transported. A goat vaccination programme is also currently under way.
Roel Coutinho, director of the public health institute RIVM, told Trouw the epidemic may well be due to the launch of an intensive goat farming industry in the Netherlands. In 1995, there were 7,600 goats in the Netherlands and now there are over 350,000, the paper quoted him as saying.