There have been further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) on farms along the border between Hungary and Slovakia.

Authorities in Hungary, where an outbreak was confirmed earlier this month near the border with Slovakia, have moved to reapply control measures that had been partially lifted in response to what the Hungarians said was an outbreak across three farms in Slovakia.

These farms, understood to to be in the localities of Medve, Csiliznyárad and Baka, are all located right on the border with Hungary.

The Hungarian national chief veterinarian, Dr. Szabolcs Pásztor, has ordered necessary official measures to be taken in the cross-border restriction areas.

In order to prevent the further spread of the disease, the existing domestic restrictions will remain in force, according to Hungary's National Food Chain Safety Authority.

Only earlier this week, the same authority said sampling of 'contact' farms affected by the outbreak there earlier in March - on a 1,400-head farm in Kisbajcs, a village in the northwest of the country, close to the border with Slovakia - had found no further positive results.

Based on what was described on Tuesday (March 18) as a favorable epidemiological situation by the Hungarian chief veterinarian, the authorities had decided to lift certain restrictions.

The relaxation of restrictions allowed some domestic movement of susceptible animals in the impacted Gyor-Moson-Sopron county – with the exception of the immediate area around the Kisbajcs outbreak – alongside with direct transport for slaughter, which was already permissible.

As well as that, the relaxed restrictions meant that susceptible animals based in other Hungarian counties, with the exception of Gyor-Moson-Sopron, could be moved to other EU member states.

Since the Hungarian outbreak, authorities both there and in Slovakia have been carrying out testing on so-called contact farms.

Hungarian authorities said they had take 4,973 samples from 45 contact farms, all of which returned negative results.

Slovakian authorities had also been carrying out tests, and had received some negative tests before the positive findings of foot-and-mouth disease today.