The infected animals, which all died from the disease, were found on a farm near Berlin. The remaining eleven buffalo in the herd will now be put down.
A three-kilometer-wide exception zone and ten-kilometer-wide surveillance zones have been established, says the spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Michael Hauck.
Water buffalo are bred for their meat and milk and are used for grazing fields.
Mouth and foot disease is a highly contagious disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals. It causes fever and painful blisters and sores in the mouth, on hooves, and udders. Humans cannot be infected, but outbreaks can, according to the National Veterinary Institute, have serious economic consequences.
Europe has so far been classified as a region free from the disease, but outbreaks have been reported sporadically. In 2007, more than 2,000 animals were put down in the UK in connection with an outbreak, and in 2011, hundreds in Bulgaria.
