The mother of a 16-year-old boy who died of Q-fever during the recent epidemic is suing the owner of the farm where the teenager picked up the disease, the NRC said on Tuesday.

It is the first time that the relative of a Q-fever victim has gone to court, the paper said.

Jet van der Linden’s son was one of several mentally-handicapped youths to develop Q-fever after visiting to the goat farm in Voerendaal. Two of the group’s leaders were also infected.

The visit to the farm took place even though the farmer knew that his 1,000 goats were infected with the disease, the NRC said.

Risks

Last month, some 300 people who were infected with Q fever during the epidemic which started nine years ago, launched legal action against the government, claiming it failed to take action to protect farm workers and kept quiet about the risks associated with the disease.

The Q fever epidemic which hit the Netherlands in 2007 and ended in 2011 left 74 people dead, the official foundation supporting victims of the disease said earlier this year.

The sheep and goat disease epidemic cost the Netherlands between €161m and €336m, according to a report drawn up for Noord-Brabant province at the time. Over 40,000 goats were killed in an effort to eradicate the disease