Goat farmers are furious at the farm ministry’s decision not to order the cull of pregnant goats on petting zoos and city farms which are infected with Q fever.

At the end of December, ministry vets began the slaughter of some 40,000 animals on 60 farms in an effort to get the spread of the disease under control.
But the ministry said yesterday that the risk of infection is very small, so city farms and farms with fewer than 50 goats will not be forced to kill their animals even if the disease is found. According to the ministry, Q fever has been identified on 19 such locations.
The bacteria which leads to Q fever is released when infected sheep and goats have miscarriages and spreads easily. By the end of November, some 2,300 people had developed Q fever and six had died, all of whom had other health problems.
Double standards
The goat farmers’ association NGHV told the Volkskrant on Friday it will go to court in an effort to have the cull stopped. ‘The ministry is using double standards,’ lawyer Marcel Senders said. ‘The minister is opting for a cautious line on big farms and even if one animal out of 4,000 is found to have the disease, all pregnant animals are to be killed.
‘But on a petting zoo in Oldenzaal, where people come in close contact with the animals, there are at least three pregnant goats with Q fever and nothing happens.’