Livestock breeders on Saturday demanded to meet President Nikos Christodoulides amid the ongoing outbreak of foot and mouth disease, with their representative Christodoulos Christodoulou describing the government’s handling of the outbreak as “unacceptable”.

“The government is unacceptable. They plan for tomorrow, they do not care about today,” he said after a meeting Stavros Malas, the man appointed by the government to head the scientific committee formed in the wake of the outbreak.

“They put Malas there to plan tomorrow. Today is dependent on the veterinary services department, the president, and the government. They have no solution. They have no programme. The president has a deadline of Monday afternoon,” he said.

He added that if Christodoulides does not agree to meet representatives of a newly established organisation named “the voice of livestock breeders” by Monday afternoon, “new mobilisations” will be undertaken.

The new organisation was formed last Tuesday and said at the time that it aims to highlight “the serious issues which have arisen in the sector”.

Among other things, it calls for alternative to the culling of livestock in light of the outbreak, though European Union law stipulates that if an animal is found to have foot and mouth disease, every animal on the farm must be culled.

Thus far, the disease has been detected at 110 farms across the island.