The president of the “Voice of Farmers” organisation, Neophytos Neophytou, spoke on Protoselido ahead of a protest planned for Friday outside the Presidential Palace, expressing strong dissatisfaction over the culling of animals and the broader handling of foot-and-mouth disease by the Veterinary Services.
Neophytou said developments last Friday followed a request from the Veterinary Services and the Ministry for him to intervene in order to calm tensions and allow second samples to be taken for repeat testing.
Agreement reached after late-night discussions
According to Neophytou, an agreement was reached late on Thursday night, adding that he even received thanks from both the director of the Veterinary Services and the responsible minister.
“It was the best opportunity for everyone to receive answers through the test results, as the procedures moved forward on an urgent basis so that results could be available within hours and, if the livestock farmers were wrong, it could be proven,” he said.
Trust in authorities “completely lost”
However, he claimed that no response has yet been provided by the competent authorities, something which he said has intensified doubts and led to a complete loss of trust among livestock farmers towards the authorities.
“The trust has been completely lost,” he stated, adding that public comments by scientists regarding the handling of the situation were also causing concern.
According to Neophytou, when journalists questioned a scientist on the matter, the expert reportedly expressed the view that a different process and a different crisis management approach should have been followed.
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