Pneumonia Outbreak at Dutch Goat Farm Raises Concerns Over Emergence of New Infectious Disease

Residents Near Farm Show Pneumonia Symptoms One After Another
"Could Be Another Infectious Disease Since the 2010 Q Fever Incident"

A goat farm near Eindhoven, Netherlands [Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] European health authorities are on high alert following reports of pneumonia spreading around goat farms in the Netherlands, where the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is raging. The Dutch medical community is also concerned that a new zoonotic infectious disease may have emerged.

According to the UK Guardian on the 18th (local time), health authorities have launched an investigation after continuous reports of pneumonia symptoms among residents living near goat farms across the Netherlands. Johanna Vandergeissen, a researcher at the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, told the Guardian, "Cases of pneumonia symptoms found near poultry farms have been identified as caused by fine dust, but the situation is different with goat farms. We do not know yet, but it could be another infectious disease emerging after Q Fever."

Dutch health authorities are concerned about the emergence of a new infectious disease similar to the Q Fever outbreak that swept through goat farms from 2007 to 2010, infecting about 4,000 people and causing 95 deaths. Q Fever, primarily found in goats, is known to cause pneumonia-like symptoms similar to COVID-19. At that time, the Dutch government took drastic measures by culling approximately 50,000 goats and declared the end of Q Fever in 2010.

Experts are particularly focusing on the increasing number of pneumonia cases reported among residents living near goat farms since the end of the Q Fever outbreak. Since a pneumonia case was reported in 2013 near a goat farm, the number of reported cases has steadily increased, and from 2017, access restrictions were imposed on some farms. Professor Dick Hiderik of Utrecht University analyzed, "The probability of residents living within a 1.5 km radius of goat farms developing pneumonia symptoms is 20% to as much as 50% higher than that of residents in other areas."

Regarding this, a representative of the Korea Goat Association stated, "Korea does not import goats from the Netherlands, so there is no problem in our country."