Serious accusation from Hungarian expert: Guest workers could have brought deadly virus to Hungary
György Raskó, a Hungarian agricultural economist, said there is an exceptional correlation between the nationality of the workers at dairy farms and the outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Hungary. He told Hungarian media that the number of Filipino, Indian and Sikh guest workers on Hungarian dairy farms may reach 5-600 due to the labour shortage. He added that Sikh or other guest workers did not spread the virus deliberately in Hungary.
Hungarians are no longer keen on keeping livestock
We wrote in THIS article that the workers in the Hungarian dairy farm sector are mainly from the Philippines and India, and their number is continuously growing. An advantage of employing an Indian guest worker is their religion, which commands them to treat dairy cattle well.
Raskó said that employing guest workers in the industry started 20 years ago. Now, Indian, Filipino and Sikh workers satisfy workforce needs. He added that Asians in the dairy industry are trustworthy and hard-working, which is crucial since milking is a 24/7 job, and one cannot be late. Since one of the basic teachings of Hinduism is the love for animals, Hindu workers start with an advantage.
Did Sikh guest workers bring the deadly FMD virus to Hungary?
Raskó told Klubrádió that the correlation between the nationality of the employees and the FMD outbreaks is exceptional. He said that in most dairy farms in Hungary, Sikhs work and the FMD virus is constantly present in their home country.
- Will workers from India save the Hungarian dairy industry? – read more HERE
Foreign employees working on the dairy farms change approximately every six months, with other relatives coming to work. They also work here for six months, then go back. It could happen that these employees brought the deadly FMD virus to Hungary. As a result, thousands of cattle had to be slaughtered, the sector underwent a serious crisis, and agriculture experts estimate the damage to be tens of billions of forints.
As an example, Raskó mentioned the dairy farm of Dunakiliti, where 2,500 cattle had to be slaughtered and where Sikh guest workers were employed. They live in a former collective farm office that was rebuilt into a workers’ dormitory. Raskó even met them since they lived on the same street as him.
Farm owners should introduce health checkups for guest workers
He added that Sikh guest workers did not bring the virus into Hungary deliberately. He mentioned Slovak dairy farms, where he found the same strong correlation between the outbreaks and the Sikh guest workers.
Raskó said the last FMD outbreak was 52 years ago in Hungary, so dairy farms do not have health protocols like pig or poultry farms. Guest workers on dairy farms did not undergo health assessments. He said farm owners should pay attention to the fact that many Indian guest workers are in Hungary, they are regularly rotated and there are at least 30 farms where they take care of the livestock.
Significant losses
He said that authorities slaughtered at least 10,000 cattle, mostly Holstein Friesian dairy cattle. One costs around HUF 900,000 on the market, so the damage is at least HUF 10 billion (EUR 25 million). However, the damage is greater since they will never produce milk for the farmers. The daily milk production of such cattle is 30-40 litres. One litre of raw milk is HUF 200, so the altogether loss will be about HUF 22-25 billion (EUR 50-62 million).
The head of the Hungarian Animal Breeders Association does not exclude the deliberate introduction of the virus
Zsombor Wagenhoffer, the head of the Hungarian Animal Breeders’ Association, told Economx that more than 9,100 cattle and 7,300 pigs had to be slaughtered due to the virus and estimated the damage to be tens of billions of forints. He did not exclude the option that somebody deliberately brought the virus into Hungary, which is what Agriculture Minister István Nagy suggested at press conferences weeks ago.
Wagenhoffer said that restrictions will remain in effect until 31 May if no other outbreaks are registered. However, Austria, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Czechia, and Romania introduced unfounded sanctions against Hungary after the outbreaks, which were not authorised by the European Commission. He hopes that export sanctions will be eased after next week.
- Read more about guest workers in Hungary HERE.
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